Hi all,

I'm totally new here, and I was led here from Google trying to figure out what could be causing problems in my foot - I've searched through the forums looking for similar symptoms, but I either just can't search very well, or there's no one out there with the same circumstances as me, heh.

Anywho, I've had this issue for about 6-7 months, now. I go to bed, then wake up barely able to walk with severe pain in my left foot (it's never the right foot). This pain doesn't seem to have a home, as it can be in either the top left part of the foot, or in the center near the back of the foot. The pain seems to go away except for a light throbbing when there's no weight on it, but man oh man does it rear up when I try to walk on it.

So, I did a little research, and it looks like people with gout have some of these symptoms: Having nighttime attacks, attacks happening infrequently, and pain being focused in the lower joints.

Here's where it gets odd, though: I've never had the pain happen in my toes, and I can move those freely without much discomfort. I also don't have any redness or visible swelling when examining my foot. Oh, and here's what I find to be weirdest: I'm only 20 years old. Granted, I'm overweight, but I didn't think these symptoms even surfaced until later on in life at the earliest. (My dad does suffer from extremely bad attacks of gout, though - could be familial)

So, I'm wondering if this is really gout, or if it's something like tendonitis or something similar. Should I just bite the bullet and get poked and see what a blood test says about my uric acid levels in my blood?

Anywho, thanks for any advice you can give. I'll be limping around for a while.