Mystery Solved!

So I spend a week hiking the Cotswolds averaging thirty kilometres per day over seven days.  Through muck and snow, uphill and down.  Then I follow this up with another two weeks traipsing all over London, Liverpool, and Dublin in footwear that didn't accommodate my orthotics.  And guess what?  Not even a whisper of my mysterious foot pain.  Not a twinge, not a tweak.  What's up with that?  Not that I'm complaining.

But it made the bone scan I had scheduled on my return seem kinda useless. I mean, if there was anything going on with the bones in my foot, I'm pretty sure it would have been painfully obvious during my time away.  But what the hell, it was all set up and it could at least rule out bone issues.  I've had a bone scan before so I knew what to expect -- a little injection of some radioactive material, a few pics, wait a few hours, then take a few more pics.  And that, I thought, would be the end of that.

Pretty damned surprised to get a phone call from my doctor's office first thing the next morning.  He wanted to see me about my bone scan.  Could I come in that day?  Well...that was fast.  A little too fast.  Obviously there was something there.  And as I had four hours before my appointment, there was plenty of time to let my imagination run wild.  After all, the receptionist's voice had been very quiet when she called, very subdued.  Don't they usually throw out the old "nothing to worry about" if in fact there is nothing to worry?  Did the fact that she didn't say it mean there was something to worry about?

He started with idle chit chat -- "how was your trip?" and all those pleasantries. Softening the blow? Okay buddy, let's cut to the chase.

Arthritis.

Huh.  Really.  That one never occurred to me.  Nothing you can do about it but it's nice to finally know.  Ibuprofen and non-weight bearing exercise when it flares up.  Apparently it's not triggered by anything in particular.

Just life.

Book Reviews:  Didn't do much reading while I was away.  Almost zero except for on the plane. Started with Gillian Flynn's The Grownup.  Don't think this one could even be categorized as a novella, more like a long short story. So pretty happy I just downloaded it to my iPad from the library.  But it was really good, one twist after another.

And then I figured it was a perfect time to reread a couple of old favourites so as to not forget what was going on during those long stretches of not reading. And I've said forever that I was going to start back at the beginning and reread all of my Stephen King library.  Covered Carrie and 'Salem's Lot.  Carrie has withstood the test of time and it's pretty remarkable for his first novel.  'Salem's Lot scared the crap out of me back in the day (the day being in 1975) but not so much this time around.  Chalk it up to being older with a lot more real life scary shit under my belt.  And the fact that I read it in such bits and pieces. Didn't do it justice.

Came back to our latest book club offering, The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger.  Didn't know until I was finished and read the author's note in the back that it was based on the real life story of Lady Duff Gordon in the 1860's moving to Egypt with her lady's maid, Sally Naldrett.  Told from Sally's perspective.  Another of those meandering book club selections.  It was very well written, evoked the time and place beautifully.