A bout with gout

I have always heard that the only people who get gout are the elderly, but I was totally wrong! I can’t believe I had to learn that through my own experience.

It was to be a holiday weekend, four full days to get lots of things done at home. I took the Thursday before Memorial Weekend off and spent the earlier part of the day washing comforters, sheets and hanging them out in the fresh air. I started at 5 a.m. and ran up and down stairs all day long.

I decided to take a cat nap for 20 minutes, and then continue with the projects I had started. Twenty minutes later, I awoke to the most excruciating pain in my left foot. I couldn’t even put my foot down on the floor.

I had read in one of my natural healing books a long time ago that gout could cause a person to become bedridden for days or weeks. I panicked! What if it really was gout! I realized, if I couldn’t even walk, I certainly wouldn’t get another thing done!

I managed to find three different books on alternative medicine, and went to the Internet to see if my symptoms pointed to gout. Sure enough, I had every. I needed to find out what I could do temporarily to stop the terrible pain.

I couldn’t believe what I was reading! In order to lessen the symptoms, I would immediately have to eat everything for the next two weeks RAW! No chicken, fish, eggs, no proteins. I had just spent the last six weeks on a diet that included these things, and it included vegetables, salads, etc. I could even have some carbohydrates. Now, all I can have is raw food, distilled water and Ibuprofen, and if I could get my shoe on and drive to the drugstore, I could get the Ibuprophen.

The books said, drink lots of distilled water, so I managed to limp to the kitchen and carry the gallon of distilled water to the couch where I would reside for the next few days. Foolishly, I didn’t anticipate what would follow if I was drinking this much water.

After several painful trips to the bathroom, I considered bringing my pillow, blanket and the jug of distilled water. Sleeping on the floor of the bathroom didn’t seem like a bad idea at 3 in the morning since I would be making a lot more trips to the bathroom before my day started!

After 24 hours of the worst pain I have ever experienced in my life (I think it was worse than childbirth, although that pain is hard to remember), I could at least get around without holding my breath. I needed that Ibuprophen, but I couldn’t get my shoe on! I could have called friends or family, but it was a holiday weekend and I didn’t want to impose on anyone so I waited till Saturday morning. I actually got my shoe on; it hurt, but I got it on, thank heaven!

I had to buy a bottle of 800 pills that I certainly will not use, and then I read on the side of the bottle that I can damage my kidney and liver if I take for than six pills in a 24-hour period. I don’t take medications if I don’t have to other than an occasional aspirin. All I know is the Ibuprophen would take the inflammation away, and hopefully the pain with it.

The Memorial Weekend was probably the nicest we have had in five or six years, with temperatures of 80 degrees, and I had four days off in perfect weather to socialize with family and friends.

I was feeling kind of sorry for myself! I sat on the couch and drank gallons of distilled water and ate raw broccoli, stalks of celery, raw green beans and frozen fruit. Twice a day, I also took raw honey and cider vinegar to cleanse my body of the uric acid that causes gout. Oh, joy!

I was starting to feel old until I talked to several people at my office on Tuesday. My friend Joe had only one bout of gout and he was 19 years old and in college. His first comment to me was, “Bet you were drinking beer, huh!” (I think I know what triggered his!) He said that he had broken bones in his life and nothing compared to the pain of gout.

Gout is called the disease of kings and queens, the affluent who are accustomed to eating rich foods. I consider myself a gourmet cook, and now I wonder if my love of cooking has caused me to experience the disease of kings and queens.