Toughing it out.

This past weekend, I had something I suffered from something I have never had before in my life. I had a painful swelling of the joint on my big toe of my right foot. Also known as gout. It was so bad that when I woke up Saturday morning, it was because of the pain I felt and not because I was ready to be awake.

I hoped the pain would subside after taking some Alleve because I had to work later that day. This would also be the first time I would be working completely alone on a job (and without that DJ company). The worst of it was that I couldn't find anyone to cover me on such short notice.

While I iced my then swollen foot, I did some online research of the symptoms. When the matrix led me to gout as the likely reason for the throbbing pain in my right foot, the first thought I had was, "Hey, I don't eat well enough to get this!" After researching the causes of gout (which, in fact, isn't necessarily caused by eating rich foods as it turns out), I discovered that I was a likely candidate for getting it. And the best part was the expected remedy. Rest and time. Two weeks to be exact for the pain to fade away.

It also turned out that four of the eight reasons listed as likely causes included stress, crash diets, joint injury, and high blood pressure. Well, there's no need to explain the first cause. I don't suffer from crash diets exactly, more like a feast or famine diet. I injured the joint in question while in high school playing soccer and just played through it. I doubt it ever healed correctly. In fact, when I look at it now, the big toe sort of curves to the right and under the next toe. I also have a family history of high blood pressure on one side.

To explain that part about my eating habits, I must also point out that in the past six months, I have lost nearly twenty pounds. Something I seemed to recall mentioning in a previous post but didn't. I also don't want pity for what I am about to describe about my current eating habits either.

The reason for this is simple. There are weeks where paying for all the bills leaves me very little to spend on food. To exacerbate that issue from lack of funds, on weekends when I am working my typical twelve to fifteen hour days, I often don't have the opportunity to eat at some of the events because I am either too busy to stop for food or because some of the companies I work for expressly prohibit eating the client's food. (Otherwise, I stuff myself and hope the calories and protein lasts until the next party. *grin*)

So, some weekends I don't eat anything but breakfast. On weekdays, depending on how much money I have, I may eat nothing but baked potatoes supplemented with vitamins. I know, I know, this isn't the most nutritional diet. Some weeks, I can afford to purchase more nutritional foods and that helps. But the point is that the extreme variation in my diet hasn't made things consistent. I also should point out that I do mooch off my parents on a regular basis, so I'm getting a few healthy meals during the week.

In light of what I read about gout and based on my recent history mostly shared here, I am amazed that I haven't suffered this condition more often. To be honest, I'd have expected that it would hit me on a regular basis. And much sooner than it had.

As for the job, I toughed it out. While OD'ed on mega-doses of ibuprofen (1500 mg). I bumped into a volunteer firefighter who was kind enough to put an ace bandage around my foot. That helped me get through the party. At the end of the night I could barely stand. I had to drive home using my left foot, which made for a very jerky ride, I tell you. Almost as if I were learning to drive all over again.

When I got home and removed the bandage, I almost passed out from the pain. I have to say that was a new experience. Then re-wrapping the foot in a new bandage caused me to shudder in pain for over an hour. Despite the large amounts of ibuprofen in my system. I spent the rest of the night drifting in and out of sleep because of the pain. The next day, I forced myself to rehydrate by drinking a gallon of water over the course of the day.

Surprisingly, when I removed the bandage on that morning, the swelling had gone down and I could walk again. Albeit with a serious limp. I still had redness as well as swelling around the joint and my foot looked like Mickey Mouse's red shoe, but the throbbing from the joint was bearable. However, it was sensitive to everything that touched the skin. I also had a slight fever that broke later that night.

Today, I am mostly recovered from it and I barely have a hint of a limp. The redness and swelling have gone down to the point that my foot looks recognizably like a foot again! I still have a pins and needles feeling going throughout the entire foot, but hardly any pain. I couldn't imagine being a pro football player and dealing with such pain for months. I'm glad I was able to tough it out for one day, let alone for an entire season with such pain.