Hi all,

I was diagnosed with gout some years ago despite never having the classic
symptoms of the painful big toe and my (intense) pain being located in
various places around my feet and ankles. Sometimes either foot would swell
all over, sometimes the ball of either foot, sometimes the top, always
extremely painful and I was unable to bend the toes of the affected foot.

It's been a good year since I've had a bad attack now, though I don't know
why as nothing's changed, but nowadays I find that any unusual exertion or
injury seems to trigger pain in other parts of the body. Is this usual with
arthritis?

For example, I crushed (not badly) my hand/wrist recently and the next night
I had the feverish symptomss I used to get with a bad attack of
gout/arthritis and my knees and ankles ached, as well as the wrist, of
course. The feverishness had gone by the morning.

Yesterday I worked on a relative's car and this evening I'm quite seized up
with muscle/joint pain in my lower back, backside, legs etc. I was
kneeling/squatting more than I usually do but the amount of muscle/joint
seizing I have is disproportionate.

It seems that if I do anything out of the ordinary I suffer for it more than
I should, relative to the amount of activity I've actually done. I'm
reasonably fit in other respects.

Any ideas?

Si