more Guild Wars and thoughts on Cindy's gout.

Luckily before I used Balthazar faction points to get any spells for my Guild Wars Warrior hero's PvXwiki "great" W-Quivering Blade sword build, it was delisted. It seems there are new and better sword builds, but they do not work well with the hero AI. So now I have built up points, found a weapon, and have started to collect money for runes/insignias toward a "great" W-Earth Shaker hammer build. I think I will like this better. The hammer is a little slower to use, but has the potential for much more base damage and also will do an AoE knockdown sometimes that works well as an energy drain and interrupt.

My Ranger/Monk player just needs some weapon upgrades and runes to complete a "great" R-Barrage build.

The heroes that I use most of the time (Warrior is in first paragraph) are at this point:
Ranger/Monk (not sure how he got monk) - needs weapon upgrades and 1 rune to complete a "great" R-Barrage build.
Monk - I just have to decide and get what weapons would best fit for a "great" M-Word of Healing build.

Other heroes I have decided to work on at some point:
Mesmer has a complete "good" M-Mantra of Recovery build. Like the Assassin there are no "great" builds I can get without a second profession.
Dervish, Elemantalist, and Paragon - I either have or can get for Balthazar points all of the spells I need for "great" builds. I was working on Dervish, but need an Ebon weapon upgrade to make the main spell in the D-Ebon Dust build work.
Necromancer and Ritualist - There are spells for these that I can not get for Balthazar points. Will try a similar spell for Necromancer and hope the Ritualist spells pop up when I get further into Factions.

I have now got all of the missions (with bonuses), quests, and exploring done on the islands in Nightfall. Just got to the mainland last night. Not as far in Factions, but have lots of quests to finish there. Really do not like the city in Factions and especially not all the levels to it. It will be interesting to continue with Prophecies and Eye of the North once I get my Warrior hero closer to done.
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I am extremely glad that Cindy finally got most of her medical problems diagnosed as Gout, since it is somewhat managable. Will be nice to make plans that involve walking and not have to cancel at the last moment because of an attack. I do not really mind pushing her in a wheelchair around places, but sometimes even the walk to the chair can be painful for her. Also will be glad once we get her dental work started. It might help some other medical problems she interrmittently has.

Diagnosed!

Yesterday morning, Bob took me to our local urgent care clinic with an infected toe. When the nurse was looking at my foot she asked "What is this?" about what I had been told several years ago was a bunion that would probably need surgery some day. Told her it was a bunion.

The doctor on duty that day was luckily an orthopedist. He came in, took one look at my foot and said, "That is not a bunion, it is gout." It turns out that what I had been thinking were bunions on my feet, my bad knees and lumpy fingers that I thought were arthritis are all gout! I am a very bad doctor.

He was very impressed with the gouty toe (the infected toe was another one - also gout) and asked if he could take X-rays (free!) so he could show them to the guys back at his regular practice (a Sports Medicine Institute.) I said sure.

While the X-rays were being taken, he printed out some info on my gout - Tophacesus Gout - and the names of some rheumatologists that I would need to see.

He showed me perfectly awful pics of other gout victims and said with glee - that I was worse! I felt so proud. Coming in first in the uglies feet in the World competition is quite something, apparently.

He prescribed antibiotics for the infection. Then said he would take my X-rays back to his people and maybe there would be something they could do surgically to "improve the quality of my life." We'll see.

Anyway, the upshot is that tomorrow I have to start calling Rheumatologists in the area (and surprisingly enough, for a place where the aged abound, there are very few rheumatologists. So I have to find one who A) is taking new patients B) accepts our health plan and C) works within an hour or two away. Wish me luck!