Today was yet another day spent at the hospital! This time, however, it was for Ben! Ben could not
sleep again last night due to a very strong pain in his right foot. It had spontaneously appeared the morning
before at 3 AM and hurt all day. It felt like a fracture but we assumed it was just a hurt muscle. Anyway,
after more than a day of the pain we decided it was time to go to the doctor so we called all the closest doctors
and NONE were taking new patients!! Fearing the possibility of a blood clot or something (were we being paranoid?
probably...that's what we get for watching dateline...), we decided it would be
best to go to the emergency room and so it was off to the women's hospital. Yes, that's right, women's hospital.
They actually will treat men in the E.R. but that's about it.




After 2 blood tests and an x-ray, they couldn't figure out why his joint was swollen and hurting so they blamed it
on everyone's favorite: gout. Gout? Yes, gout...the arthritic problem caused by eating too many purine rich foods.
WHat foods are high in purines? Oh, stuff we always eat...liver, kidney, tongue (basic hot dog components).
The uric acid levels weren't high enough to say gout, but for some reason, that's
what they decided it was (Apparently our "No--we don't eat any organs in our daily meals" wasn't enough to discourage
them from thinking it was gout). Anyway, after that they sent us home with pain killers and anti-inflamatories (not to mention
crutches as hopping around was becoming rather tiresome/dangerous).




We still can't believe our bad luck since moving out here! Luckily for us, it's brought us closer together!




When life gives you organs--don't make hotdogs,


Ben & Ashley