Worse than child birth!!!!!

When I ran on Friday there was a slight pain in my left foot when I started which I optimistically put down to the crappy old mans shoes I am currently wearing to work hurting my toes. Unfortunately by Saturday evening I knew and accepted what the pain was. It was a reoccurrence of the dreaded GOUT! I first had gout when I was 19 years old. Over the years I have had occasional attacks but for the last few years it has been good, three maybe four attacks a year usually after a prolonged session of no exercise and too much alcohol. That is what made this attack so annoying. For the last 2 months I have been a paragon of virtue, no school night drinking, healthy eating and lots of exercise. Admittedly I have a drink at weekends but very little now especially as my long run is on a Sunday morning - usually! So Saturday night I went to bed dosed up on deep freeze gel and diclofenic hoping for a miracle. Sunday morning comes and as soon as I get out of bed I know I'm not running. There is an acute pain in my left foot specifically around the joint of the second toe. Sharon takes the kids off to Mass (is gout a god's punishment for not believing?) and I decide to try the exercise bike. After 2 minutes I stop, it hurts too much so I glumly return to the house and resign myself to preparing dinner and not running. By Sunday evening the pain is excruciating, definitely worse than child birth and lasts longer (Sharon doesn't read this blog often so I'm quite brave). I get about 2 hours sleep on Sunday and when I wake up my left foot looks like it's been inflated like a balloon.
Until this point training has been going great but in the last 4 days I have managed to melt my trainers and get struck down by gout. I am sure this is just a blip, hopefully by mid-week I'll be able to get back to training and get in some long runs.