Broken

Tim's hand is officially broken.  His Italian basketball career was two weeks long.  On the second outing, something happened to his hand.  It hit the ball or a person, or something, and it came home enormously swollen.  This was last Thursday.  He waited through the weekend, hoping the swelling would go down, but it didn't.  So this morning, he went to the hospital for an x-ray.  Luckily, Amy was available to go with him and help him with the (significant) language barrier.  Here's the story I've pieced together from both of their versions.

Amy picked Tim up and took him to the hospital so he would know where to go and what to do.  They got all checked in and saw the doctor initially within about a half an hour.  The doctor (who spoke only Italian) apparently took one look at Tim's hand and said "It's definitely broken."  Then he started poking around asking Tim if different things he did hurt.  "No."  Amy encouraged Tim to be honest with the doctor and really tell him if it hurt.  Tim insisted that it didn't.  So the doctor decided that it couldn't possibly be broken since it didn't hurt enough.  (Sound familiar?)  And sent him for x-rays.  Amy stayed with him through the x-rays and tried to wait even longer but finally had to take off for a meeting.  The doctor called Tim back again to tell him that his hand was, in fact, broken.  In two places.  So they proceeded to put a cast on it, followed by another x-ray to make sure everything was where it was supposed to be.  He has to make an appointment to go back in 10 days for another x-ray.  And then they expect to be able to take the cast off in about four weeks (just perfect timing for him to be able to help with the luggage on the way home).