Limping for Two

It’s been just over five years since I was condemned to limp for the rest of my life. I’m fairly used to it by now. I’m not even sure how pronounced of a limp it is, since I myself don’t think much about it anymore. Sometimes my attention is drawn to it. My left ankle is sometimes more stiff than at other times, and I’m consequently much more “limpy.” I think my limp is usually on the mellow side, but it’s always there. I assume you’d notice it if you thought about it.

By last Wednesday night, my gout started to flare up in my right foot. It’s been quite a while since I’ve had to deal with gout, and this has been one of the more persistent flare-ups. It was at its worst on Friday night, when I lay in bed moaning at the pain and unable to do anything about it. Ibuprofen, which is supposed to help with gout, hasn’t done much for me this time around. Alas, I woke up on Saturday morning feeling immensely better, a fact that filled me with false hope. The improvement was vast enough that I fully expected the swelling beneath my right big toe to disappear entirely by Sunday or Monday morning. Unfortunately, it has not. The discomfort is fairly minimal if I keep my foot up, but of course I can’t always do that. Today was my first visit to campus since the flare-up intensified, and it wasn’t all that fun. I felt like a slow poke, limping with the pain in my right foot, and then limping lightly with the surgically reconstructed heel of my left foot. With the double limp, here’s hoping I just looked like a merry old cripple, skipping to class with enthusiastic glee. Maybe I was even an inspiring sight. If so, it’ll be a shame if this gout flare-up ever goes away. But that’s a price I’m willing to pay ... hopefully sooner than later.