We don’t know what “thorn in the flesh” St.  Paul had, but we know God answered his prayer for healing with “My grace is sufficient,” meaning, “You’ll have to live with it, dear Apostle.”

I am wondering if my particular “thorn,” a prickly pain on the sole of my left foot, will receive the same answer. Three days following the surgery, the pain is still there, just distributed a little more from front to back.  I can walk on it, but it gnaws at me late in the day and it keeps me from running more than a couple of blocks.

Dr. Moore will probably give me a prognosis tomorrow, but already I feel his verdict will be the medical version of “My grace is sufficient.”  So I am left to wonder if God is purposeful in leaving me this thorn. Is it like the artery blockage in my shoulder, which has prevented me from doing push-ups? Are these clues to human frailty, keeping me dependent on grace, which must always be “sufficient.”

Not happy about the adventures with spine surgeons, physical therapists, and orthopedists, all mis-diagnosing me, until I met the foot surgeon who thought he knew exactly my problem. Now it appears he overestimated his prowess, so I could confront my own insufficiencies.  The foot remains obdurate, and I pray again, “Lord. have mercy.”

. . . Five weeks later and the pain persists. A friend showed his remedy for foot pain: “folic acid.” Only he takes a dosage recommended for pre-natal care, about 5000 mcg.  His wife joked, “We are still waiting to see if Jim gives birth.”

I asked Dr. Moore if this was a promising cure. He said to go ahead with it and to let him know what I learned. That was more encouragement than I expected, so I cruised the pharmacy aisle of Krogers and Whole Foods. Generally the high dose is around 800 mcg, and the prenatal doses combined megadoses of iron with the folic acid. ‘Probably not advisable for men,” the department associate said and directed me to a compounding pharmacy nearby.

At Clark’s Pharmacy I found bottles of “MethylFolate” with 1 mg (1000 mcg) and 5 mg pills.  I decided to take a cautious approach and bought the 1 mg dose with the idea of starting at 2 mg/ day. So I move into the non-invasive stage of treatment about five weeks following surgery.