OK, there is now no doubt in my mind that what’s happening to my toe is gout. Last night, the pain was bad enough to wake me up, so I took more advil and went back to sleep. Today I took some alleve, which really did work for about 12 hours, and is now starting to wear off so I took another.

I’m going in to the doctor tomorrow morning at 9:45 (yes, saturday) so we’ll see what he has to say. He will probably say to keep taking the alleve and change my diet. Apparently, burning fat on the low-carb diet also contributes to uric acid in the blood, so that compounds the effect of eating more meats. I have been making sure to drink lots of water.

Damn it, I don’t want my body to fail me. That’s enough. At least wait until I’m 40 to start betraying me.

Also: ow.

Update, Saturday: Doctor says he agrees, it is probably gout. I have a script for Colchicine and another for Incomethacin (an NSAID like advil or alleve). Doctor also said it’s OK to stop taking Thiazide and to double up on the Lotensin to see if my BP comes back down. I also went for a blood test to confirm the uric acid level, and if uric acid is not high, we may have to look at other causes.

Slightly good news, the pain is a lot better today, back to Thursday level. I think Friday was the worst of it. I hope.