Inside the Mind of Deserusan

I’ll be writing more about this later but I had some complications last week from surgery I had a few years ago to correct a hydrocele suffered from competitive Tae Kwan Do. Anyway, the complication resulted in testicular torsion actualized by a brutal leg training session. Normally this can be handled without surgery but in my case it required some. This is why you may or may not have heard me mention that my "nuts" were sore.

Obviously, this has thrown a huge wrench in my training schedule. No training for 4-6 weeks to be blunt. Yeah I’m pissed, but you live and learn. More to come later.

-Dan

In all honesty, I haven’t been sick in about three years. I’ve had the occasional sniffle but attribute my streak to my diet and supplementation. I guess all things come to an end because yesterday I woke up with pink-eye and a runny nose.

I guess because I’m such a nice guy (yeah right) I decided to skip out on the gym. There is no sense in spreading germs and it seemed like a good excuse too. The worse thing about it is that my eye wouldn’t stop water or itching.

So some of you might be wondering how to treat conjunctivitis (pink-eye). Basically, if you have the viral form there is nothing you can do as far seeking medical help. You just have to let it run it’s course and deal with it. However, something you should be sure not to do is touch it or scratch it. This will spread the virus and keep it reoccuring and possibly spreading to the other eye. Washing your hands a lot or using an antibacterial hand rinse will help as well.

If your like me and get it I wish you the best. Getting sick always sucks and put a damper on training. That’s why when you do get sick and have to take a day or two off it’s best to rest and eat healthy. Better to be safe than sorry. Better yet, it’s honorable not to spread germs at the gym and possibly prevent your fellow gym rats from getting sick.

Last week I was kicking the heavy bag and heard a pop in my foot. Within minutes it swelled up pretty bad and about ten minutes later I had some serious bruising. In all honesty, I thought I broke it so I took a trip to the ER.

Once I got there the triage nurse said I had one of two things wrong with my foot. Either it was broken or I had an acute flare up of Gout. I was thinking to myself "God I hope my foot isn’t broken and WTF is Gout?" After an painful multi-angle x-ray they determined there was no fracture. However, since they needed to rule out Gout too I had to be tested for it. This is where the fun began.

After my x-ray I was still in a lot of pain so they hooked me up with some Vicodin. So twenty minutes later I was feeling pretty good when in comes a couple Rheumatology Faculty and two residents. They explain to me that after they give me a local anesthetic they would have to aspirate the joint that connects my big toe to my foot. For those of you that don’t know what aspiration means it is using a needle to draw a sample which is less invasive than a surgical biopsy. Anyway, to test for Gout they had to actually stick the needle in between the two bones through the joint. High on Vicodin I thought it was pretty cool at the time.

After about five polks with the needle the damn resident finally got what he needed and off to the lab they went. With an aspiration test for Gout they are looking for a specific type of uracil crystal build up in the joint. They also did a blood draw to see if I had elevated uracil levels based on my high protein diet. High uracil levels can also lead to kidney stone formation.

So there I am getting ready to watch the Redskins lose to the Vikings and just enjoying the heck out of the 1000mg of Vicodin I’m on. A moment later Dr. Bell comes in and tells me I have normal uracil levels and that I don’t have Gout. I’m thinking to myself "Sweet..I don’t have a disease called Gout." She tells me I just have a serious contusion (bruise) and gives me a perscription for Naproxen. A little later a very young and cute nurse comes into discharge me and adjust some crutches so I don’t have to hop around like the Russian blonde in the Sopranos.

After the fact it was painful to walk for a few days. I didn’t use the crutches except for that first night. To shorten up a long story only until today was I able to really work out and perform a cardio session.

One thing I’m pissed off about is I know feel like a guinea pig for some damn resident. Had I not been flying on Vicodin I might have been a little more critical of what was going on but shit happens.