Another Trip to Urgent Care

Well, two trips to Urgent Care in 6 months...I guess I need to finally get a Primary Care Physician.

For the last few days, I have had an odd bump on my knee and it had made my leg swell up really, really bad.  Luckily, the swelling was only near my knee, but have you ever had a swollen knee?  NOT fun!  It's really painful.  It's hard to get up and down from even just sitting.  Don't bother trying to get down on the floor and then back up again.  Won't happen without a bunch of people lifting you.  Even rolling over in bed has been excruciatingly painful.

I spent a huge chunk of my day yesterday working on my lesson for church.  Then, this morning, I ended up calling Sis. Brown and telling her I was on my way to Urgent Care and wouldn't be able to teach it.  Bummer-o-la.  It was going to be really good too.  Darn.

Anyway, the pain and swelling had finally gotten so bad that I couldn't take it anymore and gave in to going to Urgent Care.  Long story short...they think it's gout.  Um, what the crap is that?  Well, apparently, I eat too much stuff that is preserved with salt.  Like sausage.  Like pepperoni.  Like lunch meat and hot dogs and beef jerky and all that kind of stuff.  Drat.  Another one few of the few good things in life down the tube.  Just one more spur to getting me back on the Atkins/South Beach eating plan to try to get this weight off.

They took some blood - oh, and what a horrible experience that was - to confirm the diagnosis.  Results pending.  However, on the process side of it - I now have a highly bandaged hand that wreaks of pain and gushed blood all over when the imbecile of an assistant ripped the butterfly needle thingamajig out of my hand because he didn't look to see that it was still inside my vein before yanking on it!  That was the first time I have ever cried when getting blood drawn.

So, in the end, I am huge.  I eat poorly.  I can no longer eat the things I love.  I have a wound on my hand.  And, I have gout.  What does all this mean?  Well, maybe if I stop eating all that crap I will lose some weight.  I'll have to find other things that bring tasteful enjoyment.  The wound will go away eventually.  And I am bound to be known, forevermore, as Gout Girl.  Geez....yay....

On the other hand...hopefully in a few days the swelling will go away and the pain will subside.  And...maybe those periodic migraines will disappear completely!

Oh...and they were none too pleased that I never went to a doctor to have my leg checked out (the same one that's swollen now) when I fell out of the bathtub at Kris and Jim's in Michigan two years ago...especially since you can see a small amount of bruising still after all this time...so...they issued me an x-ray order to get it checked...yay...