One week ago today, I woke up with a sharp pain in my right feet, specifically around the toe region. It felt as if I'd sprained my toe. Attempting to lift or twitch my toe would send sharp jolts of pain. I found this pain and situation somewhat familiar, as I have had thru the years woke up from a sprained calf (left and right, although not at the same time, thank goodness), and the pain is scream worthy, I have to say lol
Thinking that it had been "just a sprain", I massaged it as best I could, amidst the pain (silly me), and subsequently went through my day - as I usually do when I sprained my calves - and hoped for the eventual subsiding of pain. And like that, my Thursday had passed, with me limping slightly.
Admittedly, I had actually wondered if (A) It had been Diabetes wrecking havoc on my feet (It is a eventuality, but an experience I have not lived through as yet...) ... or (B) It had been a "curse", which came into effect when "7th Month" had started (Yes, I tend to overthink my life).
But that night left with the most painful of experiences until now. The pain was excruciating, and I had woken up multiple times because of the sheering jolts of pain. I was thinking; "The hell was this sprain, man?!", and slept thru the pain again, and again, and again.
Woke up Friday morning with an ache, and even posted on Facebook about the pain, as I do my mundane health issues - primarily because I wanted to have a public record of my health, or rather the aspect of my health I choose to share openly with folks, whomever will read, which I tell myself I really should do so on my personal blog, or THIS blog actually - but FB is easier and faster lol
The pain grew progressively through out the morning, and while watching R.I.P.D. on cable, I had an online friend ask me on Facebook (Thanks Rachel!) if it was "gout" - which got me googling on my phone - something which I very seldom do (anything I do on my mobile is a challenge to my post-Stroke eye-sight), but did as I had by then decided to ice-pack my painful toe-region, hence being able to sit and watch R.I.P.D. in the first place LOL
The symptoms were near-identical, and I saw the magic word in "Kidney" related issues.
Something that I had been grappling for months, but unable to articulate in detail, is my currently deteriorating kidney, brought on "more likely" by specific medication I had been taking for the past semi-odd nine+ years, for one of my maladies which contributed to my Stroke in 2010. I am deliberately being vague about said medicine because, (A) I need to do my research to be able to properly name said medicine (Idol forgotten what it was, but can be traced), and (B) It has not been overtly blamed by my doctors/specialists (but have been mentioned in passing). Now this needs to be another whole separate blogpost on its own, but yes, the "kidney"-affected aspect of this pain I was feeling, became more apparent I would need to seek medical help.
In essence, my kidneys are deteriorating rapidly to the point of (eventual) dialysis, with my past medical reviews in the recent months being borderline bleak, to eventual positivity, to the current bleakness again, so this might potentially be a new development in my personal ongoing Saga of Crap.
I called to make an appointment with my neighbourhood polyclinic, hoping to have my regular "Family Physician" to see me, but alas appointments were full that day, so I made do with one of their daily doctors.
Long story short, based on my medical records, the diagnosis was more likely Kidney-related, and yes, it was/is GOUT. It was painkillers or steroids (injections? pills?), the later of which is not recommended as I am already pumping my body with too much medication already.
I am to return in another two weeks for a medical check/blood-work, to determine the next course of action. From my Kidney issues, there is already Protein in my urine, and so I am unsure if "acid" would be a new complication, based on online self-medication, which quite frankly through the years, has helped me prepare for the eventual diagnosis, but has not helped me with my anxiety beyond being officially diagnosed. Heh.
The following days/weekend had been a challenge to navigate. Besides falling back to using my walking cane (from Stroke days) to walk outside of the house, the issues had always been nighttime, when the pain manifested.
Throughout daytime, I had used both a spray-on "Zheng Gu Shui" (meant for sprain-relief), and the ice-pack to quell the pain, both of whom worked but for a couple of days. And while I could bare the pain in day-time, refusing to take pain-killers (*I refuse to, since my Stroke in 2010, as I want to know the pain, letting my body "tell" me where is wrong in my body lol), by the time I lie in bed, unmoving no less, the pain was something to behold.
By night three I took painkillers, and I slept through it like a baby, waking up even later than I usually do in the (late) morning. For two more nights I took painkillers, until I have since decided not to.
I asked the doctor "How long will this last", with the answer being "three to four days", and then "longest would last between a week to a month" .... as of this blogpost, it has already been a week, dammit...
The pain has since subsided, compared to a week ago, with a couple of developments which I had wanted to put on record here.
While the pain was "internal" a week ago - pressing the swelling spots elicited sharp pain, as of Day 6, the swelling has gone down significantly (but not gone away totally), BUT leaving the skin being extremely sensitive - I could run my finger over the surface, and the pain would be sharp-ish. So now the skin surface on the side of my feet / toe region is extremely sensitive to pain, which is an issue, because I wear slippers at home (NOT wearing slippers at home is not an option).
Sides of the slippers scrapes at the pain every single time I take a step. I bought a new pair of slippers too, as the former had cracked, and may have contributed to a scrape on the surface of my feet, no less.
One thing I do (right now), is wear a sock on the feet, so even if it rubs against the slipper, it is less painful than it is without. At this stage of pain, somewhat binding the feet, works for me.
All this also means being home-bound at the very least for the time being, although I am egged to go out for my walks, as I need to exercise to loose this damn weight!
Besides what I need to shed, what I take into myself is what I can currently take note of;
The new dietary regiment - in anticipation of the checkup coming up in a week's time (now) - includes No Meat, No Beans, No Seafood/Fish/Small Fish, and coupled with my previous "Nos" for diabetes, it leaves my diet a "challenge", but not unable to overcome. All this is quite literally forcing me to walk a dietary path I SHOULD have chosen to walk right after I walked out of Stroke hospital stays 9 years ago, but did not stick to - which has since left me overweight (*One of which seriously leads to gout in the first place), and still needing a bountiful of daily medication.
Kind friends and folks always tell me what NOT to eat, but not everyone can tell me what I CAN eat, and quite frankly I can currently afford with my zero ability, since February of this year, when Google cancelled the ad revenue for the blog.
I am currently not taking any specific medication for the gout, but for painkillers to quell the pain, and quite frankly have not seemed TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), as I seriously do not want to ump my body with more medication as I already am, and there are no specific foods I can take to remedy the situation, besides NOT eating specific stuff, and exercising.
