Last month in “Opportunity Cost – 12. xkcd and Smashed Toes” we reviewed all the opportunity costs and mentioned my smashed toes due to a weightlifting accident. Now on this #13 we find out how unlucky and lucky, I was.

Previously we discussed the concept of “Opportunity Cost”. If you choose to do one thing, you forgo many other choices. This “cost” is true whether it is money, time, or any other asset.

We talked about the opportunity cost of going on a ‘once in a lifetime’ 10 day trip to the 75th anniversary of D Day on Omaha Beach in the middle of our Valencia house deal. We talked about the opportunity cost of buying a classic car in 1984 for $10,000.

Here are the other 9 investment options, in (perceived) order of risk to capital:

  1. Cash
  2. US Treasury Note
  3. Bank Certificate of Deposit (CD)
  4. A Bond Mutual Fund (VBTLX – Total Bond Market Index Fund)
  5. A Stock Mutual Fund (VTSAX – Total Stock Market Index Fund)
  6. A REIT Mutual Fund (VGSLX – Vanguard REIT)
  7. United States 12 Month Oil Fund, LP (USL)
  8. Gold
  9. WOOD – iShares Global Timber & Forestry

Last month I smashed two toes; big and adjacent, right foot badly. I dropped a 25 lbs weightlifting disc on them. The picture on the left is 5 minutes after the accident. It doesn’t look too bad. The picture on the right is today; 10 August; almost one month later. That doesn’t look too bad either. But in between, it was BAD.

Immediately after taking the left-hand photo, I drove myself to Urgent Care, then to the Emergency Room. They verified that both toe bones were broken. Four days later I saw a podiatrist. It looked very bad. I won’t show the photos here; too disturbing. The doctor noted the gray color, lack of feeling (he was poking me with a pin, and I didn’t feel anything) and the complete absence of pain. At that point he said, ‘we may have to take off one or both of those toes. If the capillaries do not recover from the injury, we will have to amputate. And there is no therapy or drug or anything we can do to facilitate that. That afternoon, Michelle and I prayed over the toes, and I felt it change. By that evening, they were a whole lot better, with areas of red and pink instead of gray. Two vascular surgeons saw them two days later and said that I should be fine. When the (podiatrist) doctor saw them a week later, he said “Wow!”, “You were lucky.” I told him it was God’s healing.

In the videos below, my grandson Dr. Kinston demonstrates what could have happened:

And the alligator, or is it a crocodile, version of the procedure:

Anyway, I am ‘back in the high life again’, “And we’ll drink and dance with one hand free”:

And I am wearing both shoes again!