GOUT?!?!??? Are you kidding? How embarrassing! And painful!! Most of yesterday, swelling in my left wrist. Did I wack it? Overuse stress injury? I do use my left hand to balance when peeing in the chamber pot, when carrying gallons of water to the boat, stepping onto the boat from the dock.
Swollen and painful yesterday but last night was excruciating. Only in one position did my arm/wrist have any relief. Limited sleep in spite of drugs.
First thing this morning, to the emergency room at a smaller hospital. Since my injury was not life-threatening I was "in waiting" a long time. And I was pretty confident I'd cracked a bone somehow. Gout was not in my vocabulary, mostly because of my mostly vegetable and grain diet. And I only knew of gout in lower extremities. But, no fracture showed up on x-rays. Dr. Amaradeep Singh said we would treat it as gout and I left with prescriptions for Prednisone - steroid, ugh! - for four days, and acetaminophen. We learned that gout can flare with excess of meat, beer, alcohol, coffee. Okay - more meat last week with family than I usually have in 3-4 weeks, no leafy greens or green veggies to speak of, and back to the boat I had alcohol for the first time in a week - beer and next night, a Scotch. And not nearly enough water to flush those purines and urics away! Of interest to us is that the fish we love also can contribute to uric acid build up, and bananas and vitamin C reduce the acid. Who knew?
Another serendipity - Dr. Singh's wife is from Bar Harbor. We had a lovely chat about Maine, boating and invited him to look us up when they were in Maine. We'd love to have them visit us, maybe a sail. He was a delightful man, kept apologizing for having to leave me to see about a heart attack patient. "No worries. Go. I'm in pain but not about to die." Dr Singh told us that the propensity for gout could also be genetic which caused me to remember that both Mother and Dad had suffered with bouts of gout. Hmmm, bouts of gout(s)...must be a poem or story in that phrase.
Post-emergency visit - which was the quietest emergency room I've ever been in, though they did put me in a conference room because all the examination rooms were full and I wasn't bleeding - David and I went for breakfast/lunch and had an excellent egg/collards/hot sauce biscuit. Then took a drive to the Norfolk Zoological Park but decided to not really visit. David bought a pair of gloves in the gift shop.
Then a visit to the Hampton Roads Naval Museum and the Nauticus Museum and the Battle Ship Wisconsin. We know I'm not a fan of war machines (or war) but I'm so impressed with workmanship and the size (LARGE!) of these Navy vessels. Two photos from the Wisconsin:
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| Signal Flag Station |
It just reminded me of backstage theater fly loft.
The bicycle rack (below) gives a whole new meaning to "bikes on board." They were hung under the third deck, accessible from deck 2. I didn't notice whether there was a companion one for balance and symmetry the other side of the ship but this rack would hold about 20 full sized bikes.
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| Bike rack |
It was fun for me to be in downtown Norfolk. The Nauticus is near the area of town that hosts the High School Dance Festival that I attended several years when working for Bates Dance Festival. We missed seeing Todd's dance studio but drove by the hotel where most activities took place, perhaps still do, and walked the water front nearby. In spite of the cold and a bit of gout pain it was great to be out of the marina, walking and remembering fun dance times.
Home for a dinner of things on the gout diet menu - chicken, roasted root veggies and leafy greens. Soon another drug for pain and off to bed for me.
New Year's Eve may be t.v. or movie night in the Breezeway Cafe (lounge) with no drinking for me. I'm the enforced DD in case we thought of driving - not.
Full moon coming. Howl! With gusto and safety.
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