Life on the Spot! Life and Leisure in Doha, Qatar

About 3 weeks ago, Christian woke up feeling pain on his left foot.  It was the area between around his big toe to be exact.  At first he thought that it was nothing that he was even able to go to work that morning.  But then when he came back for us (it was Xiane’s first day in school after the half term break) he was already limping and I could see that he was in terrible pain.  He still managed to drive to Xianelle’s school though.  Although he wasn’t using the left foot for driving it was painful just the same and more painful even with the slightest movement.  He then decided to see a doctor. 

As soon as the doctor heard the symptoms and after having seen his foot, the doctor told us that he suspect that it was gout.  Naturally, Tian and I were so surprised to hear this because we thought that the only people who experience gout and arthritis are those the same age as our parents.  We thought, we are only in our early 30’s.  But then the doctor started asking about our diet and we had to admit that we basically have more meat in our diet.  And lately, Tian had too much of bottled sweet beans.  We knew from our dads who suffer from arthritis from time-to-time that beans and other legumes do contribute to high levels of uric acid which in turn cause gout and arthritis.

He had to take 2 days off so he could rest his foot and most of all he had to avoid eating meat, legumes and other prohibited food for about a week.  His blood test showed that he had uric acid level that is above normal.  The doctor didn’t prescribe any treatment, only pain reliever.  According to him, we have to change our diet or else Tian will end up having gout and when that happens there will be no turning back. 

We have been planning on having vegetable and fruit diet for sometime now but we still haven’t started yet.  I guess, we can only put it off for so long because I know that if we really want to be healthy we have to start it as soon as possible.