sharp stabbing pain in toe Posted: 02-09-08 15:09pm
Hi all. Hope someone can help me with
this sudden new development which i think
might be the onset of gout, but I need a
bit more help with self-diagnosis.
A few days a go, i woke up in the night
with a sharp stabbing type pain in my
right big toe. The pain seemed to be in
the cuticle around the bottom of the toe
nail - almost as if I had a splinter in
it. Bending and flexing the joint did NOT
hurt at all. There was no redness or
swelling.
At first I thought it was just some sort
of problem with the skin around the bottom
of the nail (cuticle?) or the
splinter-type theory. But then I realised
that the pain came and went even if there
was no pressure or rubbing on the skin
around the nail. It would keep me awake
for 5 minutes or so then happen again a
few hours later. For three days it
happened only at night but today I have
felt it a couple of times - once when
walking around and once when just sitting
watching the TV. Best described as a
sharp stabbing pain that starts mildly for
a few seconds or a minute gets worse quite
sharply and is uncomfortable without being
excruciating (yet?) for a few minutes then
stops completely. Only to re-appear a few
hours later. Exercising the joint by
rubbing, flexing, walking around neither
makes it worse or better. It just seems
to come and go.
I am 63 years old (male) fit and normally
very healthy. I play golf 3 times a week
- which is equivalent to walking about 15
miles (even if I hit the ball straight!).
I am not over-weight (rather thin
actually) and eat pretty well. Not too
much red meat and some fish but not prawns
etc. I eat plenty of vegetables - not
beans! However - here is the big issue -
I just don't drink anything like the
correct amount of water. I guess I always
knew this, but didn't realise how low the
levels were (been measuring it for a few
days now). I doubt if I drink even two
glasses of water a day, plus a couple of
cups of coffee. I drink a couple of small
cans of beer most lunch times and 1/2
bottle of wine a night - no weekend binges
or anything. Clearly the beer doesn't
help as I am reading in this forum and
related sites.
I am going to make a big effort to up the
water intake - I figured I should be
around 2 litres per day in the winter here
in Spain and perhaps 3 litres when it gets
hotter.
First, do people think this might be the
very early signs of mild gout, and, if so,
apart from the water intake anything else
I should be doing? Of course, if it gets
worse, I'll go see a doctor, but haven't
been to one in over five years - so if I
can fix it myself I would much prefer
that.
