Channeling my inner St. Sebastian

I gots the Gout.  Or at least I did last week.

I hated admitting that.  To me it sounds like some terrible communicable disease that, had I made better choices, I could have avoided.  But it is not.

What it is is horribly-terribly-I-want-to-cry painful.  It is a complex form of arthritis in which there are sharp uric acid crystal deposits in joints, often in the big toe.  And that’s exactly where it hit me, the left big toe. 

When it first started early last week, Himself thought that’s what it might be but I didn’t want to believe him.  I could hardly walk let alone run.  After spending most of that night awake in severe pain, a little internet research told me that is exactly what it was.  Other than taking some pain relievers and using an ice pack, there is not a lot to be done about it.  Thankfully, it is usually short-lived and the worst of it lasts two or three days. 

One day in the midst of it all, I hobbled down to the ladies room at work.  As I was washing my hands, I saw in the mirror the St. Sebastian medal I was wearing.  And I laughed.

How was St. Sebastian martyred?    When it was discovered during Maximian's persecution of the Christians that Sebastian was indeed a Christian, he was ordered executed.  He was shot with arrows and left for dead, but when the widow of St. Castulus went to recover his body, she found he was still alive and nursed him back to health. Soon after, Sebastian intercepted the Emperor, denounced him for his cruelty to Christians, and was beaten to death on the Emperor's orders. (from Catholic Online)

  

One of the ways I described the pain was that it was like a thousand needles were dipped in acid and then stuck in my toe.  The arrows didn’t kill St. Sebastian and a little Gout isn’t going to kill me.  It’s not going to derail my C25K training, just slow it down a little.  

I am now in my third iteration of the sixth week of the plan.  Maybe this week I will finally make it all the way through!

AMDG