NEGATIVE? NOT ON YOUR LIFE!

It was pitch black but I screwed my head around to see the time on the clock radio. Oh goodness, 12:23 am! I'll never get to sleep again.

I was lying in bed in a hotel at Seoul's Incheon airport in South Korea. I was in excruciating pain, It ran all down my left leg from the back of my knee to the toes and even though I rolled from side to side, there was no position in which the pain diminished enough for me to sleep again.

I got up quietly, because my wife was in the next bed and ran a hand-towel under the cold water in the bathroom. The cold on my leg was a real surprise I hadn't noticed that the leg had felt hot but certainly the cold made me feel a little better and I sat up in the armchair with the sopping towel draped over my leg. An hour later, during which I had tried to analyze the cause of the pain and nodded in half sleep, the pain had declined enough for me to go back to bed.

My analysis had got nowhere. Sure I had some sort of ache the night before. I had limped a little in walking around the grounds. Maybe it was a recurrence of gout that I had two years ago but I had taken the pills religiously. Then I noticed that the pain seemed to rise from foot to knee to my thigh and even my rump. But the next moment all the pain was below the knee. It didn't make sense even knowing that some pain can be sympathetic.

2:48 am.

So it went on all night; in and out of the bathroom for more wet toweling; in and out of bed to try to diminish to pain; but not an awful lot of sleep.

When morning eventually came everything felt a little better. It is wonderful what daylight will do. Irresolvable problems at 3:00 a.m. felt a lot better when the sun flooded through the windows. Breakfast even tasted good.

That day we flew back to Denver, Colorado, in two flights. In Business Class I could move continually and the pain lessened to a dull ache and became bearable. I even survived walking for miles through San Francisco's airport and the heat and humidity on the way.

However, as the hours drew dark towards evening I became less comfortable and that night was a repeat of the night in Incheon. I found no tolerable position: left, right, back or front, but I did find that a very hot shower gave me about an hour of sleep. I showered four times that night.

The pain was still there in the morning and despite not having much faith in the medical profession, this day I made an early appointment to see my doctor.

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