Monday, October 18, 2010

Holy Gout!

Well, today was interesting. My foot was feeling a little better this morning, but it still looked pretty swollen. So I decided to call the doctor, and the nurse told me to stop in. I took the second half of the work day off and headed to the doctor. He instantly thought that it was gout! Yuck! Just the word "gout" bothers me.

Typically it is something older people deal with. Basically, it is when the kidneys have trouble ridding the body of uric acid, so the uric acid leaves through the bloodstream and for some reason, heads to the big toe in most cases. It is a form of arthritis, according to what I've read. The doctor said that when the toe swells, it indicates a gout attack. Things like alcohol, red meat and spicy foods trigger attacks. However, my doctor said he is not to the point where he would limit my foods. He said I am healthy and at a healthy weight, so he is not worried about foods, etc.

Even though he is pretty sure that it is gout, we won't know for sure until the blood results come back. The blood work was done in the office, and the results will be back tomorrow.

I'll be honest; I am not convinced it is gout. I kind of want it to be, since I will know what the problem is. Although this incident is the first time my foot has been really bad, I have had a few times when the foot hurt before. I always wrote it off as a pulled muscle or a bruised bone or something. However, this is a completely different possible diagnosis. I mean, I was thinking I would need x-rays and would find out I had a chipped bone or stress fracture or something.

Like I said, I would be absolutely shocked if it was gout. But, I guess I will find out tomorrow! I just want to be able to work out and walk like a normal person again. I need to because I ate like a pig this weekend.

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