It started to hurt yesterday while walking around the house. The instep seemed to be the ringleader. J wondered if it could be gout - which I've had in the toes, but never here. I looked up gout and instep.
Gout is an extremely painful inflammation of the joints caused by a buildup of needle-sharp uric-acid crystals.
The big toe is the most common target, but gout can attack the feet, ankles, knees, and hands as well. (From Health.com)
Feet. So it was possible, so I took one of my gout pills before dinner. I get an attack so infrequently that while I know shrimp and beer are foods to avoid, I don't have the whole list in my head.
Looking it up now, I see some problems from yesterday:
Foods with the highest purine content include liver, organ, and game meats, sardines, mussels, anchovies, herring, and beer.
Foods with moderate levels of purine include red meats, chicken, fish, asparagus, mushrooms, peas, beans, lentils, cauliflower, and spinach. (from webmd)
Choosing meats to eat is very tricky when you're on a restricted gout diet. In general, white meat is a better choice than red meat. However, there are some exceptions. Beef and pork are slightly less dangerous than turkey, goose or lamb, for example, while chicken and duck tend to be the safest choices meat-wise. (from Sympton Find)
I did eat the turkey liver in the morning. And about six asparagus at dinner. And dark meat is my favorite.
I posted all these foods two years ago here. The old list includes oatmeal which I eat most mornings. I have avoided beer and shrimp - which clearly preceded an attack once - and I've had no symptoms eating other foods that are forbidden - mushrooms, other seafood, like samon.
This morning, when I got up, the pain was excruciating (see picture of my foot above) when I stepped on it. It was bearable lying in bed doing nothing. I took another gout pill and called the doctor. My doctor of 30 years retired this past summer. He was the doctor I could email from anywhere and I'd get a quick terse reply about what he thought and what to do. I'd been thinking I should visit his replacement before I needed to. Just because I'm used to knowing my doctor. Well, she wasn't in and the doctor I saw wasn't sure it was gout. Sounded more like fascia problem to him, but not sure how that would have happened.
Under your skin, encasing your body and webbing its way through your insides like spider webs, is fascia. Fascia is made up primarily of densely packed collagen fibers that create a full body system of sheets, chords and bags that wrap, divide and permeate every one of your muscles, bones, nerves, blood vessels and organs. Every bit of you is encased in it. You're protected by fascia, connected by fascia and kept in taut human shape by fascia. (From Runners' World)
Pain and tenderness associated with planter fascia strains are usually felt on the bottom of the foot between the heel and the base of the toes. Plantar fascia pain may be increased or decreased by stretching of the arch. In mild cases of plantar fasciitis, the pain will decrease as the soft tissues of the foot "warm up," however, pain may increase as use of the foot increases. In more severe cases of plantar fasciitis, pain may increase when the arch is stressed. Often the sufferer of plantar fasciitis will feel pain in the morning until the plantar fascia warms up. Foot pain at night may be a sign of plantar fasciitis as well as other possible problems. (from Medicine Net)It does hurt when I stretch my toes up and down. But I haven't done anything to strain my foot lately. In fact I've been pissed about my lack of exercise since I banged my ribs two weeks ago after my bike tire hit some ice, shortly before I hit the ice.
Meanwhile I'm not a happy camper. Though either the colchicine or the pain killer is starting to deaden the pain a bit. Foot problems like these make me grateful that my body works as well as it does. (I did give thanks for that yesterday.) And make me more tolerant of those whose bodies give them more trouble and more willing to share my surplus mobility with those who don't have as much.
