vituperation

Thank you all for proving what I already knew: we live in a douchebag-filled world.

I hereby declare my feet healed. Tentatively.

In a perfect world, I’d be able to market Mr. Fred’s Miracle Foot Cure and retire wealthy, but the simple truth is they just stopped hurting. Literally almost overnight. No pills, no stretches, nothing. One day agony, the next ecstasy. And I ain’t complaining.

For a long time, I was taking anti-inflammatories to make my elbow not hurt so bad. A beneficial side effect of the pills is that my feet didn’t hurt either. A little over a month ago, I happened to miss the pills one day, and the next day my feet hurt worse than they ever have. The pain was new, covered both entire feet (even the tops), and was so bad it even hurt to touch them. The pain was especially bad at the base of each toe.

When I started taking the pills again, the pain didn’t go completely away; it just became manageable. For several days I took the pills, then I missed a day and the pain came back with a vengeance. That’s the “new pain” I wrote about back in May when I did the entry about shooting at the raccoon. Ultimately — and with a little help from Dr. Google — I convinced myself I had gout because the pain was so bad around my toes, and because my feet felt hot.

Dr. Judy believed otherwise, and told me she thought it was my old friend plantar fasciitis, who’d been in hiding while I took the pills. I accepted the diagnosis, but I had my doubts. This pain was far worse than anything I’d had before, and like I mentioned, it was all over my feet, not concentrated in the heels.

I went home and resumed the pills for a few more days. But really, who wants to take pills all the time? I knew that the anti-inflammatories would eventually exact a price from my liver, what else might they be doing to me? I resigned myself to surgery and stopped taking the pills.

The pain came back, but only for a couple of days. Then it was just…gone. After more than a year of having it as a constant (when I wasn’t medicating) companion, I don’t miss it a bit. It’s been two or three weeks now. I didn’t want to say anything at first, because sure as I did it would come back. But it’s stayed gone.

Even better, my elbow doesn’t hurt all the time any more. I can move it freely with no pain, but lifting things with my arm extended still hurts pretty bad. As long as I’m careful, I can get through most days without it bothering me. I do still overdo it from time to time — particularly when I’m using a saw or hammer — and it spends the evening aching.

All in all, though, I’m a happy camper.

I guess I should actually say “mostly stayed gone” when I talk about my feet.

When my elbow started bothering me back at the beginning of the year, I had to stop lifting weights. Then, as my foot got worse and worse, I stopped using the elliptical trainer too. For about two months I haven’t worked out at all, though Robyn can attest I still stay fairly active.

If that were the extent of it, it wouldn’t be so bad. But, as is well-known, I turn to sugar when I hurt. I did it with my shoulder, I did it with my back, and sure as shit, I did it with my elbow and feet. Now that I’ve declared myself healed, the time has come to do something about the almost twenty pounds I gained as I worked out less and less and medicated with sugar more and more.

So, this morning I got up early and worked out on the elliptical. My feet were fine while I was on it, but the arch on my right foot has the slightest pain when I walk on it now. Trust me, I’ll be watching it like a hawk; I would do just about anything to keep it from hurting like it did just a few weeks ago. Hopefully this pain is just from the new motion, and not a portent of things to come.

It felt good to work up a workout sweat, which is very different from a “work outside” sweat.

Now, some pictures.

Meet the new Jezebel, better than the old Jezebel.
She’s green. Though the guy I bought her from may in fact be a douchebag,
I didn’t get her from the douchebag in the last entry. This Ram has 50K less miles,
is in better shape, has a towing package, and is a newer model.
Best of all, she only cost $100 more.

The pigs get bigger and piggier. They’re much closer in size now,
thanks to two troughs.

The right side of the garden: soybeans, green beans, okra (two plantings,
which is why the ones in the back are smaller), blackeyed peas, and navy beans.

The middle of the garden: cukes, tomatoes, those soybeans and green beans
from above. There are peppers and eggplants on the rows with the cukes.

Wall o’ green beans.

Roma tomatoes, not yet ready.

Celebrity tomatoes, also not ready.
We want some damn tomatoes. You’d think with 56 plants we’d be getting more
than the few cherry tomatoes we’ve gotten so far.

The left side of the garden: corn and squash (yellow/white/zuke).
You can see some of the peppers and eggplants to the right.
We have fifty-three squash plants for two people. I may have planted too much.

I picked this squash yesterday.

And this squash too (there are three cukes on top).
Think for a moment about how much squash you see in these two pictures.
I pick that every day.