In August '99 I found out I do have Gout as well as Pseudo Gout.
I don't know if this is what I have. The doctors don't know if this is what I have. All I do know is that in July of 1998, I woke up one morning and my right foot looked like a snowshoe.
I went to the hospitals Emergency and the doctor who examined my foot said it was gout, gave me a prescription for some pills and suggested I see my regular doctor. My G.P. saw me a couple days later and said he thought it was gout as well but I would have to have my Rheumatologist verify it.
Three weeks later, although still tender, the swelling was gone and I was in my Rheumy's office. He checked it out, arranged for some blood tests and x-rays, and a few days later informed me it was not gout and he didn't feel it was pseudo gout either. He didn't know what could be causing it but asked that I keep taking the anti-inflammatories he prescribed.
Over the next few months, my foot would swell on a sort of schedule. It would swell, last for 3 to 5 days and then disappear. When the foot swelled I could not put weight on any part of it until the tenderness left the foot - usually about 5 days or so after the swelling went down. About every two weeks the swelling would return. Needless to say, that dramatically limited the days I was able to go out, IF everything else had settled enough to permit it.
Each time the swelling came, it affected more and more of my body. First it was the right foot, then the left and right feet, next time it involved my ankles as well. By November of 1998, the swelling would come and everything from my ears to my toes would swell up. The Rheumatologist was at a loss, my G.P. had no answers. I knew something had to be done because the swelling was lasting longer and the recuperation took longer - I would just get over one episode when the next would start.
On a lark, I started an in depth examination of the foods I was eating and the medications I was taking. Guess what I found out? There was a little know and rarely experienced side effect to the anti-inflammatory I was taking - in extremely rare cases, the anti-inflammatory I was taking would cause swelling in a patient.
That was when I stopped all medications that I was still taking (I had chosen to stop taking most earlier that year - in the spring).
I still experience the foot swelling, but not as bad as the first time and not the wide spread swelling that I had while on the pills. In the past couple months (since early June '99) I have been unable most days to wear shoes or sandals - they just cause my feet too much extra pain. I don't know if this is just a "summer thing" and it will return to normal when the extra high temperatures we have been experiencing abate, or if I am going to have to buy new shoes for my larger feet.
Oh boy .... I get to wait and see (again!!)
Addendum ... December 1999
I finally found out in August, after they extracted a fluid sample from my foot, that I have Gout and Pseudo Gout ... yippee. Since then I have been on medications that keep the swelling under control. By September I was able to start wearing my shoes again ... just in time for the cooler weather.
My rheumy also injected cortisone into the toe joint ... youch. I will never have one again. Not because the injection hurt ... and the cortisone worked really well in that I had absolutely no pain in my foot for a couple months. Trouble is ... when you hurt head to toe, day in and day out, you or at least I have been able to sort of condition the brain to register the pain as not being as bad as it is. But, when my foot felt no pain ... the brain had a frame of reference so the next couple months until the shot wore off, I found it very difficult to deal with the pain in the rest of the body.
As of July 2000, the pills are still working ... some days the feet are a little puffy, but most times they look and feel really good.
