Some of you have already seen the next post and you are wondering "what in the world?" did I do to my toe?
A little over 4 months ago I thought that I might have an ingrown toenail. I went to our medical group in Encinitas and Amber, a physician's assistant, told me that it was infected and she said if it kept giving me problems after the antibiotic had done its work that she could cut it off for me.
One antibiotic become two and then three and four - a couple of them I had more than once. A funny thing happened somewhere between the first and third antibiotics. Another doctor or physician's assistant (I forget which) diagnosed me with gout. Another complicating factor along the way was my left knee, which I finally found out yesterday has arthritis.
Once I got the gout diagnosis for my foot (NOT what you see pictured in the previous post), the doctor decided that my toe was gout, too. I figured that I was not the doctor, so what did I know?
We battled the gout attacks (at least 4 in 5 weeks) and then I was given allopurinol. My osteopath told me that I would have to take it for a year or possibly the rest of my life. That was pretty scary to me. I took it for two days and had a scary allergic reaction of what looked like a double case of gout on my CHEST! It went away by itself after a few hours, but the doctor told me to stop taking it for a week.
During this break in the medication I was determined to not have to go back to something I had to take for either a year or the rest of my life. I was not happy with possible long-term side effects to my liver or kidneys or who-knows-what-else. I found
GoutCure.com and got ahold of a product called Gout Control. I started taking it and got some pretty good results. My gout seemed to be at bay, but I was taking what I thought was the maximum for my size - 5 capsules a day.
What I like about Gout Control is that it seems to be made of natural ingredients. What had me wondering was the tingling I kept feeling which through experience I have come to call "pre-gout" warning. After having full-blown gout I was grateful that I mostly felt that feeling when at the end of the day and then in bed. Compared to gout itself, this little tingling was almost nothing and I am sure everyone who has gout would gladly trade it for this feeling in their foot.
About that time my old friend, Sue Landis, called to tell me about this awesome product line she for which she had become a consultant. Not too many days later I become a consultant with that same company, Isagenix, and now those pre-gout feelings are rare AND I've lost some weight and expect that my weight loss will continue. I love Isagenix! I'm even going to Menifee, California today to visit the home of Rocky, who has made over a million dollars in Isagenix through 5 years of effort. Now that I'm a consultant with Isagenix I look forward to learning more about the company and the product line and so far, my training has been fun!
"What does all this have to do with your toe, Charlie?" you might be asking. Because developing gout shifted the thinking of the medical team, they seemed to see all the symptoms as related to gout. So they started to see my gout as the priority and decided that my toe was gout, too. I don't think that their assumptions were ridiculous - just unfortunate. To be fair, Dr. Duck (his real name) was the one who kept seeing my toe as infected and finally (when he got to see me) told me that it absolutely was infected.
What was the problem? Because my ingrown toenail was infected and for a while a few of these medical professionals thought it was gout, it got worse when I wasn't taking antibiotics. To be completely fair, I definitely should not have let my sweet, seemingly sympathetic doggie lick my toe. Dr. Duck laughed (in disgust?) when he heard that and told me that that had to stop.
As the gout problem lessened, the toe problem had gotten worse before Dr. Duck made his diagnosis. While I had full-blown gout I learned a new level of pain. I remembered the scene from "Return of the Jedi" with C-3PO translating for Jabba the Hut:
C-3PO: His high exaltedness, the Great Jabba the Hutt, has decreed that you are to be terminated immediately.
Han Solo: Good, I hate long waits.
C-3PO: You will therefore be taken to the Dune Sea, and cast into the pit of Carkoon, the nesting place of the all-powerful Sarlaac.
Han Solo: Doesn't sound so bad.
C-3PO: In his belly you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years.
Han Solo: On second thought, let's pass on that, huh?
So I was thinking that this level of pain was not something to be worried about if it was connected to gout (though I definitely wanted to modify my behavior to get rid of it). However, if this extreme pain was an infection, this could turn into something really serious. As I mentioned earlier, Dr. Duck saved the day with his diagnosis and prescription. Yet he reminded me as Amber had done months before about the possibility of needing to cut off my toenail. He also had me soak my toe in epsom salts (as Amber had done, to her credit).
Dr. Duck let me get a double-dose (timewise) of the antibiotic and then gave me a more powerful antibiotic and almost all the pain went away, but it still looked bad. So he referred me to Dr. Dustin's office in Encinitas.
When my wife and I arrived we thought there would be an examination and maybe a determination to do something at a later date. Boy, were we surprised! Our specialist took one look at my toe and said he would have to cut off my toenail and he would do it within minutes. I immediately adjusted my thinking as did Marianne, my wife. Soon he gave me two very quick shots of painkiller in my toe and 10 minutes or so later he was removing my toenail while I read Time magazine and we had intermittent casual conversation.
One good thing about Time is the size. When I opened it fully to read, it blocked my view of my toe and his work. (Helpful tip, Egon. Thanks.) This very experienced specialist was slightly taken aback by the odor of what was under my toenail, but recovered instantly to dig all the crud (technical jargon) out of my toe. I only felt pressure while he was working on me. Just barely a hint of something at the very end and then the toe started to wake up as he was wrapping it up. He said it would hurt the most right after the procedure and he was right.
Another thing he said is a little sad. Certainly not the end of the world, but my toenail may or may not grow back. I still have it wrapped and changed the dressing every day. He'll see me in a week.
Of course I didn't fully tell you about my knee, which I got a call from Dr. Duck's office about yesterday. Apparently that was at least tangentially related to gout because I've got a form of arthritis in the left knee. I'll find out more next week at the orthopedist.
Again, don't let your dog lick your toe.
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