I live in Gout.

So, the left big toe issue is not tendinitis. It's gout.

That's right, gout. That would be a disease we usually only associate with old people ... from the 16th century! Benjamin Franklin had gout - probably from all the beer! Turns out, even dinosaurs suffered this lovely disease! Meat-eaters - go fig!

Anyway, my toe started hurting Sunday - out of the blue. (Which, unknown to me, is a symptom.) It got worse Monday. Tuesday the toe turned purple - not scary bruised purple, but swollen, shiny and not normal colored purple. I left a voicemail for the doc and I saw her yesterday.

She took blood samples to confirm, but she was pretty sure and since the meds she put me on are already lessening the pain - I think she got it right. The funny thing is that I have been blaming big toe pain on tendinitis for quite a while now - it was probably gout all along. If there is any good news, it's that I now have an excuse to add some cherries and blueberries to my diet - apparently they ward off the formation or uric acid.

Never a boring day with my body. But, once the meds do their job I can get back to the business of exercising and get more of the weight off. The doc says gout has nothing to do with the weight, Wikipedia says different. I say my body just hates me.