Unexpected disruption

It’s not uncommon for plans to be interrupted—derailed, even—nor for things to pop up unexpectedly. Sometimes, something we think we’ve taken care of reappears and is responsible, in part, for the derailment. Over the past week I’ve experienced all that.

It began, really, last week when a guy I’d hired to clear our section, as wells as wash the house and deck, started working on the project. I’d started work on it and realised it was too big for me, having been neglected for a couple years due to my undiagnosed health problems. Even at the end of the first day, when I saw the enormous pile of overgrown vegetation he’d removed, I knew I’d made the right call in hiring someone.

However, the weather turned later in the week, which made getting up on the roof to wash it (and remove the moss and lichens growing on it) was too dangerous. So, he did the best he could at ground level, but even that reached its limit.

So, we began this week a bit behind, especially because the weather yesterday continued bad. All the wetness meant I couldn’t re-paint the low retaining walls in our front garden, and I couldn’t re-stain the deck.

The weather wasn’t the only unpredictable problem, I also had a very unexpected one: I got a gout attack.

Back in November, I started taking allopurinol to prevent gout attacks. As is always the case, I began with the lowest possible dose, and for the most part it’s been effective: Any minor twinges I felt were gone the next day or after popping a couple paracetamol. So, an actual attack came as a surprise.

It began on Thursday in my right foot, then in the other, sort of at the same time as the first one, which was waning. Then, Saturday it became a full-on attack in my left foot. It was so bad Sunday night that I barely slept. ANY pressure on my foot, even a lightweight blanket, sent me spasms of pain, something that I don’t think has happened to me since my very first attack 15 years ago.

Yesterday, I doubled my intake of cherry pills, just as I did months ago to end my attacks so I could go on the allopurinol. As a result (or, not… my experience is not proof, as I discussed last month), the attack is finally receding. I was able to wear shoes today for the first time since Friday. At this rate, it’ll be over in a day or two.

All that has put this project behind schedule—not dramatically, just behind. But it also affected even blogging because I felt miserable and couldn’t really concentrate—and I DID try! Now, maybe things will return to normal.

Whatever happens with my affliction or the weather, my current project will get done at some point. And, some future project will also be interrupted unexpectedly. It’s just the way things are.

But I could certainly do without another gout attack.