Meat Me

A large, jiggly man rolled up on a motorized cart to the pharmacist consultation window and desperately wanted to know a few things about his gout flare-up. He asked me what he could do to relieve the pain, if he had any prescription refills for his gout medications, and what he could do to reduce the number of flare-ups. I covered a lot of information with the fellow, including the role meat plays in the epidemiology of gout. An hour or two later, lunchtime arrived. I decided to eat at McDonald's (which I do very rarely). Who was in the line ordering right in front of me? It was my dear gouty friend. I couldn't help but overhear what he was ordering --- a Big Mac with EXTRA MEAT! Then he hollered over to his seated female companion to ask her if she wanted extra meat too. Wow, I never thought about adding extra meat to one of those. It's a good thing he ordered before me so I could get some creative ideas about what I could order. Also, it was good to learn that the 10 precious minutes I spent helping this man with his critical situation was worth so much to him.