Saturday, September 25, 2004
Foot Update
It seemed to get a bit better for a day or so. Then it went back and stayed about the same, until it worsened yesterday.
What I described before was gout-like symptoms in the joint where the big toe meets the left foot. Now it’s in the heel, the other toes are stiffer, and pain shoots throughout the foot at times. Lots of feeling stiff, funny as well as painful in the arch, that ind of thing.
Those times are mainly when I first put weight on it. It can get fairly comfortable laying down. Oddly, it helps less than it did simply to sit, or to elevate it on the recliner while sitting there. If I merely sit, it is not as debilitating to stand back up as it is when I have been horizontal. Now when I get up from bed I double over when the foot hits the floor, and I exclaim “oooh, I forgot!”
Ironically, it feels less bad than it did to walk or stand on, once I get started. I can walk around and it’ll feel better than it does right now, sitting at the computer. The toes have a greater range of motion than they did, if I ignore that the big toe hurts like hell to move, and the other toes feel oddly numb. Actually, they do anyway, but more so.
I do believe this means I am past the “let it go away by itself” stage and up to the “beg the doctor’s office for an immediate emergency visit Monday morning” stage.
Update:
Just poked around researching the matter. Googled the symptoms and landed on gout, so that’s probably it. What I described is pretty classic. We just discussed all the possible diet and lifestyle factors. My diet has changed dramatically since I stopped being single. More meat, and in a couple spells recently, far more red meat. We recently went on a “hot dogs sound really good” spell, where Deb had been uninterested and I had barely eaten them as a result. We went off coffee for a while in the summer, and had gone back onto it. Seems like the day this was less bad may have been a coffee-free day.
When I was feeling off some weeks ago, we had been on a regular diet of meat and salad or veggies, with no carb with supper, except on the days when supper was pasta. There was more red meat due to some amazing steak sales ($1.49, $1.89… wow).
Diets heavy in meat can be a trigger. As can dehydration, which is definitely a recent factor. I take less water consumption versus soda consumption to be a negative too, but just before this hit, there were a couple days when I had very little to drink. Ironically, while I take a diuretic, another risk factor, it had recently been halved.
Hypertension is a factor. That’s me.
Excess red blood cells? Not me. My last blood test showed me being mildly anemic. Too mildly for concern, but odd if you ask me. Somewhere in there was an itching all over symptom that wouldn’t seem to make sense, except I had it recently, just preceding and then overlapping the foot. It was driving me crazy for a few days.
Genetics could be a factor. My grandmother has bursitis. My mother retired early with severe arthritis. I have had arthritis symptoms to a modest degree for many years, mainly in my elbows since injuring them, and to some degree in knees and hands. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit.
The danger in going off and researching this stuff online is how easy it might be to convince yourself you have something you don’t, or make yourself worry. Leukemia? Well I certainly hope not. Sheesh.
The funny thing is that the “low purine diet” list of foods describes the bulk of my former, less healthy diet. Go figure. I was probably unwittingly keeping myself gout-free over the years.