de agony of de feet

For the past few days, my right foot has been swollen. I'm not sure what the cause is, but starting next week, I'm going to begin eliminating variables. One probable culprit is my diet, so I'm going to starve myself, hardcore like last time, from Monday through Wednesday. Based on the previous starvation experience, I know I can go 72 hours without food and still be perfectly fine; system-wide failure doesn't occur until about halfway through Day 4. If the swelling doesn't go down after three days of not eating, then I can turn my focus to some other factor, like my meds. If I can't figure out the problem, I'll see my doc. I have to see him soon, anyway, because I'm running low on my current brace of pills.

The swelling has made life hell whenever I wear shoes, which is all the time. After a day of pain, I finally got a clue and stripped off my usual thick sock in favor of a thin sock ("sock" in the singular because the swelling is happening only to my right foot). When that also proved to be painful (the sock material would tug at the bruised toenails on my right foot), I stripped the thin sock off as well and went commando. The result has generally felt a lot better, but the shoe itself is still a problem. As a result, I'll be hitting Itaewon on Saturday to see about getting some large, comfortable sandals. I don't like walking long distances in sandals because of the footwear's tendency to attract under-the-sole grit, but I can use the sandals while I'm in the office and not worry too much about getting any crap underfoot.

So that's tomorrow's mission, along with a reconnoiter of High Street Market, which a coworker told me might now be closed: he peered into it a couple weeks ago and saw the store was utterly empty. Since that time, I've checked High Street's online footprint to see whether there have been any "going out of business" announcements, but there's been nothing. I suspect the store was undergoing rearrangements and/or renovations; the store's interior tends to change a couple times a year, probably because the owners get bored and antsy. I'm not looking forward to doing a lot of walking around Itaewon, but I hope things will improve once I've got my sandals.