Back-to-Back Attacks

The menace (it is!!!) that has plagued me the past week or so was gout. It attacked again. And it's been miserable.

It started Monday morning last week, as I got up to prepare for work. I felt a slight pain on the top right portion of my right foot. Since I have not had an attack for quite sometime, I didn't suspect it to be another gout attack. I associated the pain to the relatively tight sneakers I wore over the weekend, and that I may have twisted my foot or something. When I got home that evening, it swelled a bit. The next morning, my foot hurt and I couldn't stand on it. I had to call in sick.

After popping a couple of pills, surprisingly, the swelling either subsided really quickly or it didn't progress. There was still some pain, but tolerable. And I was able to walk, albeit the pain. On Wednesday, I was wobbling back to work. It was the end of it. Or so I thought.

Friday morning, again, as I was preparing for work, I felt another pain, this time on the ball of my left foot. I honestly didn't think it was another attack because I do not recall having attacks happening one after the other, and affecting one foot first, then the other. This was probably the first. Despite it, I went on my merry little way and headed to work.

That Friday was a pretty long day. That evening, we had our quarterfinals volleyball game, and I did a lot of standing. Then, there was the late dinner and some chatting among team parents right after. The next day, there was a slight elevation in the pain, but it didn't hinder my mobility. It wasn't swollen either, as I thought it would be. As a matter of fact, we (wife, son, and me) went on another 22 mile bike ride on the Alameda Creek Trail. This time we broke in the 2 new bikes. At the end of the ride, I was still OK, but the pain was there and bearable.

Saturday evening, when the foot was a bit rested, the pain became more evident. And it had swollen, too. The next day, it had gotten worse. I was dragging my feet. I didn't have any choice. There were a lot of things going on, and I had a championship game to win. So I sucked it up and did what I had to do. Of course, it took its toll as soon as I got home and took my sneakers off. By then, any pressure on the ball of my left foot shot a sharp pain running up my body.

For the next 2 days, Monday and Tuesday, I was out of commission, and stayed home. If I needed to walk, it had to be planned because I cannot afford any unnecessary extra steps. It hurt!!! Actually, the peak was Monday morning, and with medication, things had improved a bit.

Today, I was able to come in to work, with some bearable discomfort. I had to allot more time for walking, like from the BART parking lot to the terminal. I even rode the shuttle provided by our building management from BART to our building, and back.

Things should be better as the week progresses. I should be back on my feet (no pun intended) by the end of the week. I just hope it doesn't come back. But you'll never know. It just sneaks up on you.