Hi again. I was diagnosed with gout about a year and a half ago. It responded well to baking soda treatment, and for about a year I only had occasional and mild discomfort in the joints every now and then. However, I let myself slide back into bad habits (overeating, gaining weight, too much beer, etc.) and finally during a very stressful situation at work a few months ago I got a real whopper of an attack that crippled me for about a week and took a couple more to fully subside.

I feel better now, but there's a slight swelling on the top/outside of my right toe (strangely, not the toe that got hit hard in the last attack) and slight soreness when I bend it past a certain point. When I first noticed the swelling, I thought "oh no, tophi already?!", but I felt it and moved it around and it feels more like a sac of fluid than a lump. It's soft and hard to see or feel when the toe is straight, but when compressed by bending the toe up it raises and gets firm, kind of like a plastic packing bubble does when pressed.

I looked around a bit and found out about bursitis, which is evidently common in gout sufferers, and then I remembered JYY2's mention of bursitis in his toes. So now I'm pretty sure that's what it is, because a tophus is more of a nodule and not liquid. My question is, what's the best treatment for it, and if it doesn't go away should I seek out medical treatment? Keep in mind it's quite mild and doesn't affect my mobility at this point.

Oh, one more thing: I've been reading up on old 19th century accounts of the curative powers of various mineral springs, and there does seem to be a correlation between alkaline springs and positive results for gout sufferers. Especially those with high bicarbonate content. Interesting, isn't it? If high bicarb mineral water were cheaper, I'd drink it instead of baking soda water. In fact, if I just substituted the beer with alkaline mineral water, I might save money anyway.