A series of unfortunate events put a damper on summer vacation for Anum Khan, a second-grade teacher based in Brooklyn. Just before the end of her last day of school in June, Khan missed a step on the stairs. She landed in an awkward position on her big toe.
She went out that night anyway — to celebrate the start of summer with her friends. The next morning, in pain, she taped it up and decided she should probably get it checked out.
“I had never broken a bone before,” she says. “I was just like, ‘Oh I didn’t break it, it’s fine. It’s probably just really bruised up.”
An orthopedic surgeon, Dr. William Lackey, whom she discovered through Zocdoc, confirmed her fears: She had broken her first bone. He gave her a boot. Then, one night, two weeks later, around midnight, she was walking around her small apartment with crutches and banged the pinkie toe on her other foot on the base of her fan. She quickly found a podiatrist, Dr. Vu Nguyen, who had an early appointment; They confirmed the pinkie was also broken, and put the toe back into place.
“No one could believe it,” she said. “There’s nothing much you can do about it. You just have to wear a boot and just let it heal.”
Her recovery lasted all summer. While her big toe has pretty much healed in time for the new school year, her pinky still has a few weeks to go.
“I’ve been using Zocdoc since 2007 or 2008,” she says. “ I like how convenient everything is. And they give you reminders. Everything is just like tracked for you. I don’t keep track of these things. It just keeps everything a little checklist for you, so it’s super convenient.”