A few weeks ago I noticed some slight pain on the outside of the "outermost knuckle" of my left big toe. It almost felt like a bruise. Since then it has become more painful. The pain seems to be focused on the joint and there seems to be some swelling. I don’t think it’s gout because I have non of the risk factors (I’m vegetarian, relatively fit, etc). I haven’t started wearing new shoes and I don’t recall doing anything too traumatic to the toe. Any ideas? Note this is not the knuckle closer to the foot that gets a bunion. Also, the swelling is spread out in an area around the size of a dime. It doesn’t have any glossiness or extreme hardness, but it hurts like hell now whenever I put pressure on it. Curling the toe up or down hurts a lot.
I went to go see the doc. He said he didn’t think it was gout because my foot didn’t really swell up. He thought tendonitis, but admitted it didn’t really make sense based on what I had said. He did take a blood sample to measure uric acid levels, so I’ll see if that pans out. My symptoms have largely abated over the past several days though. I I have been drinking a lot more water and I’m still suspecting gout and that the hydration merely flushed the crystals out (or resolublized them). I have also taken an anti-inflammatory a few times, but I think the water did more personally.