I’ve been suffering with writer’s block for a few months now, but slowly the creative juices are beginning to unclog and flow once again. Most of this block can be attributed to my recent bout with increased arthritic inflammation in my left knee. My PC sent me to x-ray and the radiologists diagnosed pseudo-gout. My PC who isn’t an MD, but an ARNP, did not accept this diagnosis because she had no knowledge of this affliction. She decided I was suffering from regular ol’ gout because my uric acid level was nearly one full point over the threshold. At what point do you question the medical knowledge of a nurse practitioner over a medical doctor?

The telling symptoms of my knee WERE NOT swelling, warmth, or redness, which would be consistent with gout, but was just pain, often excruciating, wake me up in the night pain.

Having had knee pain in varying degrees since childhood, I knew what to do to help lessen the impact of this latest bout. Unfortunately, I’m allergic to all the standard NSAIDs. The only one my body can tolerate is aspirin, which, interestingly, can compound the effects of gout. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Well, I got an appointment with an orthopedic resident who—with the affirmation of her attending—said arthritis is spreading throughout my knee. I suppose this was inevitable. Bad knees can go only so long until they attract the attention of the arthritic god of old age. An orthopedic surgeon I saw in 1971 said I had ninety-year-old knees; I was twenty-two at the time. So, I guess it’s back to self-treatment as I know it and when the knees and fingers (new symptoms) get too back I’ll try to get back to orthopedics.

The good side of all this is I slowly getting back to writing. 319 Winesap Lane, Chapter 18, is coming along, slowly, ever so slowly. Two new boys have come to the home and Billy has encountered a problem with an upper classman.

My new project, which will not be published until it is complete or at least complete through Section One, has the working title of The Faggot. It is a sci-fi story of a homosexual man who is transported to a planet that is lacking a male prostitute to service the needs of the men who desire the sexual services that only another man can provide. Interestingly, the faggot is also available to women of the village who desire sex with a man other than their spouse. There is, also, a harlot to service the heterosexual needs of men and homosexual needs of women. The interpersonal possibilities of the characters are endless.