As many of you know, I suffer from congenital gout disease, inherited from my father, surely exacerbated by growing up on an American diet, in addition to my own part of culpability in adolescent self-destruction. Thankfully, it is under control with an Eastern diet and medicine, a victory I take great pride in.
Between the winter holidays I am as guilty as many of pushing the over-indulgence envelope (relative to my own standards), and one night last week, as our toddler was giving us a hell of an evening in resistance to sleep, I experienced some pain in the distal inter-phalangeal joint of my big right toe (always the culprit, interestingly located on acupuncture’s meridian that corresponds with the pancreas!). It was the perfect storm of parenthood physiology: The body needs twice as much rest and self-care, and is allotted half (if you’re lucky). Needless to say, I was worried, as we all are when our Achilles heels rear their heads, that this would “turn into something.”
Because of said toddler insubordination, the subversive from within, plus an early workday the next morning, my wife and I had already conceded a good night’s sleep. Instead, just to unwind, we put on our latest favorite show, I soaked my feet in hot epsom salt water for 20 minutes, during which I needled points on my left hand to treat my right foot (a particular style and technique many of you have suffered through at my hands, no pun intended).
The next morning I woke up tired, only moments before my daughter did, insisting, requesting, yelling, and crying, offering me no moment of reprieve or transition into consciousness (it truly never ends) as I got everything ready for the day. I was tired. My head had that subtle pounding to it that heads have after going down too close to midnight and/or waking too early. I felt irritable and frustrated. BUT… my toe was pain-free!
When we are exhausted or irritable about something or someone, it can be challenging to focus on the positive—look at the bright side instead of the hole in the donut. I spent the day reminding myself, each time I got annoyed or felt resentful, of my right foot, my big toe, how much worse that could have gone, what it could have meant for the week to come, and how big of a disaster I avoided. Not to mention that my daughter did have pre-school the next day and the weather was nice! There have been instances in the past where my joint pain worsened, school was out, I was on full-time Dad-duty, and the weather was awful. All considered, I was very lucky. Sure, I was tired and the day wouldn’t feel or probably go as I’d planned or hoped, but I repeatedly made an effort to return my focus to that toe, and all the things that had gone right.
Patient sometimes come in and apologize for telling me everything that’s still wrong when overall they’re doing much better and so many things are positive, and I remind them that my office is the place to focus on the negative. Apprise me of every imperfection as it aids in the diagnostic process in our aim for physiological optimization. In the remaining 23 hours of every day though, try to focus on that healed part of you that was previously headed in a drastically different direction. I understand it’s not always that easy—the negative is not always as simple or temporary as a bad night’s sleep, a mild headache, or argument. For such instances I extend my sympathy and support.
