I am covered by the sky and fate. I cannot contact my erstwhile doctor, who is at the whim of the HMO she works for.

There are "clinics" - I can go to the "clinic".

Surgury is surely required - complicated surgury because of the nerves and vessels intermingled with the gelatinous mass of blood. This cannot be had at the "clinic". The prognosis otherwise is "chronic expanding hematoma", in which the mass develops a life of its own, with angiogenesis and calcification of associated musculature. Life with a hot new football as a permanent passenger. Nice source of killer clots.

Already it is getting difficult to straighten my leg. I can feel the breaking adhesions every morning - with attendant living fire coursing up and down the useless thing. This is America - go down slowly, go down low, go down down down until you crawl.