I'm not going to work today and I left work early yesterday because of unexpected, excruciating pain.

Have you ever hurt your foot? Like, so that it is terrible even to use it? It's something like that that reminds you how much you depend on having a healthy body.

When I explain what it is, people don't see how it can be that bad, but it's pretty frickin' bad. I've had sort of a nagging problem with the ball of my foot--normally, it's uncomfortable to stand on my tippy-toes, otherwise, I'm totally fine. It had a flare-up two years ago when I was in the Philippines with my family; because I was on vacation, I forced myself to hobble around and see things, but that doesn't mean it didn't hurt. And now, two years later, with my parents in the Philippines, here it is again. I suspect it was the bellydancing on tippy-toes that did it. Imagine the pain of stubbing your toe really hard, that first wave of it that makes you curse; now imagine that that degree of pain doesn't go away, and that it's all over the upper sole of your foot, especially throbbing in the ball. It is constantly swollen and throbbing, and hurts like a mother unless it is ridiculously elevated and totally immobile--and even then it is hard to fall asleep. Even as I type, my foot is up on my desk, and it is driving me to distraction.

Okay, really. I can't write. I have to go.

12:14 p.m. 2004-01-25�