I woke up today with a sore foot, sore enough to give me a limp for the day. It's my left foot on the inside and top that's sore. It feels like a dropped a brick on it or something. Any time I move my big toe back it feels really tight and hurts a little more.

I've got three ideas about how it happened, but I'm really not sure.

Idea #1, late sprain from painting the other day. I was pretty sore after doing some painting for the first time in a couple of years on Tuesday. I thought I was going to wake up sore the next day buy felt fine. This idea really doesn't sound plausible to me.

Idea #2, I was doing a lot of stretching while trying to get to sleep yesterday. Perhaps I somehow over-stretched my foot in my sleep like I sometimes do with my calf muscles. Being I was worn out from painting the other day, perhaps my foot was already susceptible to sprain like this. When I overstretch my calf muscles in my sleep the pain wakes me up every time though. When I woke up today I didn't even realize my foot was sore until I went to get out of bed.

Idea #3, I fell asleep on the couch yesterday and eventually made it to the shower and to my bed sometime throughout the night. I somewhat remember getting up to take a shower and going to bed, but I was like a zombie and the whole experience is kind of foggy. I definitely don't remember kicking anything or stepping oddly though.

I'm going with idea #3! I'm thinking after you fell asleep on the couch you did something during the time you made it to the shower and finally to bed. I've just never had a foot sprain in which it came late from an activity I've done. If I hurt my foot, I usually feel the pain right away, not a day or two later. Also, I've never hurt my foot from stretching my calf too much. Maybe that's just my body though. Maybe your body works different!

How's the foot doing now? Getting better?

I woke up today with no change, still sore, still have to limp around. It doesn't look swollen which has me a little confused.

I ran into my neighbor and had him look at it from another angle, he says it's definitely swollen. I got an ice pack from my mom today that's designed to wrap around feet. She had to wrap it around her foot when she had surgery on her big toe.

Funny thing is my neighbor had a bruise on his arm and didn't know it until I pointed it out to him while we were talking. We joked that maybe we were sleep fighting and I kicked him in the arm.

Here's a photo of the cold pack.The wide part wraps around the foot and the thinner part wraps around the ankle. I wrap the towel around my foot before the cold pack goes on.

Ha, that's funny! Maybe that is really what happened!

I took two 500mg Tylenol about an hour before I went to bed. I woke up this morning completely pain free. The swelling went down a little too, it was bad last night. Then I had to go to the bathroom, as soon as the foot touched the floor, pain. Looks like I'm going to have to quit hobbling around with my crowbar cane and get some crutches today.

The pest control guy had some insight on my foot today, he suggested gout, which is caused by elevated levels of uric acid in the blood. The uric acid crystallizes and deposits in joints, tendons, and surrounding tissues which results in recurrent attacks of acute inflammatory arthritis.

He had some photos of his buddy who had gout. His foot was swollen like mine, I've got a red patch on the inside of my foot today, he had the same thing. He also just woke up one day with a sore foot, just like I did.

I was looking at this list of foods containing purines, which the body turns into the uric acid that messes up joints. I eat a lot of things on the lists.

Now I'm spooked, especially after seeing the photos of his buddies foot and hearing the guy just woke up with a sore foot one day. I'm going to see if there's anything I can do at home to treat it before I give up and go see a doctor.

That sounds scary! Did the guy you talked to say how his buddy had the gout treated? Did he have to take medicine? When did the red patch on your foot appear? Not until a few days after the pain started?

The red patch just appeared yesterday, today is the 12th, I started this thread on the 9th when it was obvious there was a problem, which is roughly 2 days after this all really started, so it took about 5 days to get the red patch. (My sleep schedule has me waking up in the afternoon this week so the time frame is a little foggy) The pest control guy said his buddy started out just like I did, and it took about 6 weeks for his foot to get to the point it was in the photos, so the time frame has me a tad skeptical of my foot.

I stayed off my foot almost completely yesterday. The only time I had any weight on it was in the shower and when I woke up to see where I stood pain-wise. Today it's just about back to where it was on day one swelling and pain-wise. So I'm once again leaning away from going to the doctor.

Hopefully this is all just coincidence and it's just a sprain, bit whether this turns out to be gout or not, I'm still making changes to my diet. My mothers father had diabetes and circulatory problems in his legs and it seems like this sort of stuff runs on her side of the family. For starters I'll be drinking more milk. I don't really eat much if any of the foods on the top of the list I posted earlier, but I've been eating plenty of the foods from the middle two sections of the list.

I hope whatever is going on with your foot gets better soon. This does not sound like very fun to deal with.

Just don't wait too long before going to the doctor if it doesn't get better...

Yeah, I agree, don't wait too long before going to the doctor.

I am surprised at some of the foods on that list, especially sardines, I thought sardines were really good for us.

Here is the list on that article:


I wonder if a person ate everything in moderation, if these foods would be ok or not!?!

joebert... do you eat those foods on the list in moderation, or do you eat them a lot, more than the norm??

I keep waking up and it's feeling better than it was the day before. I feel like I could walk on it today, but I'm afraid I'll aggravate it again if I do so I'm still staying off of it. I've been staying off of it and taking 1000mg of Tylenol about an hour before I go to bed. As long as I keep making progress towards getting better I'm going to avoid going to the doctor.

I'm really not sure about this gout thing because the timeframe of the guy in the photos I was shown is around 6 weeks, and it's getting better for me with little more than rest. The other guy had to take anti-inflammatories.

I am making a few lifestyle changes though. Starting today I've tripled my vitamin C intake from 500mg to 1500mg, started drinking a small glass of milk every time I go to the fridge to get some tea/soda/etc, and I'm cutting back on my meat portion size in relation to my vegetable portions. It's almost mackerel season again and the weather's warming up so I'll be on my bike more often to go fishing, though I'll be giving the mackerel away instead of eating them more often.



I don't eat much of anything on the "very large" amounts list. I eat muscles occasionally and I don't eat as much bread (yeast) as I used to. The lists I eat a lot from are the ones that look like paragraphs of text below that list. For some reason they didn't format those two lists the same. From the "large" list, bacon, turkey, and mackerel are three biggies, though I already watch my mackerel intake because of mercury. I've been eating a lot of bacon lately. The "moderate" list is pretty much a catch-all list of meats and I eat a lot of meat compared to other things I eat.

So how is the foot doing now? Any better?

I've been able to walk on my foot for a few days now, albeit slowly. I put some recessed lighting up under my neighbors cabinets for her this afternoon so that had me walking around a little today. I'm not sure whether it's getting better or I'm just getting used to the pain and forgetting it's pain. It feels more like cramps now where as it felt like I'd sprained or broke something before. My big toe is starting to feel pressure periodically.

Whatever it is, I inspired my neighbor to start riding his bike to and from work again. He said "I see you breaking down over there, I ain't goin out like that !" so some good has come of this whole thing. lol

High tide at my fishing pier is at 5:47AM today. I'm debating whether I should try and ride my bike out there to do some mackerel fishing. I've got about an hour left to decide, but one thing that is for sure is that I'm definitely tossing my bike on the front of the bus and taking the bus across the large bridge between me and the pier. No way I'm even going to attempt to huff it up that bridge with a sore foot !

That's good that you are able to walk now. Hopefully it is because your foot is healing rather than you just getting used to the pain!

Ha, that's good that you inspired your neighbor out of this!