Nothing dramatic, just the foot. Didn’t get time to look at it last visit.

My new shoes did indeed help, in the sense that the pain in my foot is not getting worse and worse for each passing day. It is not getting better either, beyond a certain level. It seems to have stabilized there. I can go to work and back without intense pain, but no more long walks. I also invested in a pair of sandals, but that does not seem to help either.

So, despite my experience that seeing a doctor VERY rarely has any effect except on my wallet, I took some time off from work to see my regular doctor today again. After all, I did NOT do this when my arm felt this way, but soldiered on for a couple years. And now that arm is permanently damaged. I can write naturally, since I automatically take pauses when I am on my own. But at work I cannot do much typing before the pain returns. Perhaps 10 minutes at a time. Now the foot is in a similar situation, and I don’t want that to become permanent if I can avoid it.

I got an appointment at 13:45, but an hour later the waiting room was empty and there was still no sign of the doctor. It was still half an hour until I had to go for the bus, though.

One minute before I would have gone for the bus, the doctor showed up. There is no way he could know about my bus routes, so this was an obvious case of Divine Intervention. Seems God has found me worthy of a couple small tests lately. Seeing this, I decided to clean my soul of this impatience so it could shine brilliantly with the bright white light of divine love. Well, that is my aspiration. I suspect it is still more like a dim glow to the random observer, if it can even be seen at all. But at least I got the opportunity to see myself.

As for the doctor visit itself, it was fruitless as usual. He wants me to take an x-ray on Monday “just in case”. Apart from that, he wanted to give me painkillers with an anti-inflammatory side effect. Unfortunately, they also have the side effect of weakening the stomach lining, which is already one of my few weak spots. 16500 Americans die each year from stomach perforation caused by over-use of painkillers (or simply because they did not know, or neglected to inform their doctor, that they had a tendency toward ulcer before they started taking this stuff.)

When I had the problems with my arm some years ago, there existed a second type of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs, of which I got one called Vioxx. It did not affect the stomach at all, but was withdrawn from the market while I was still using it, thanks to the FDA. A few people got heart infarcts after using large doses of it for a long time, longer than the clinical trial that had originally found it safe. Because of this, FDA banished the whole class of drugs completely from the market, and the drug companies withdrew it from the rest of the world as well. And so the undertakers can look forward to their 16500 new cases each year, and everyone can breathe a sigh of relief that the government is looking out for us as usual.

I am starting to think prayer and fasting may be a better alternative. Fasting in particular, since fat is scientifically proven to be a pro-inflammation agent, both in the blood and on cuts and scrapes. But before we go into wholesale fasting, let’s see how far we come with rolled oats and an exercise bike.