How did I get introduced to gout? It was 1983 and I was sitting in my office in the Philippines with my left foot propped up on my desk. It seemed like the pain would never stop no matter what position I placed my foot.

I had taken some painkiller but the pain got steadily worse. Finally I called the doctor that I knew and asked him if he could see me right away. By the time I arrived my foot had swollen so much that I had to remove my sandal.

The doctor didn’t have a clue!

After examining me the doctor determined that I must have an infection in the large joint of the big toe on my left foot. He gave me some antibiotics and told me to drink a lot of water and stay off my foot.

After a few days I was back to normal and figured that I must if picked up some type of infection in my foot. Since clean drinking water was hard to come by in the Philippines I thought perhaps I had not been drinking enough water. Continue reading →