Manual inconvienience

[Herb]

Well today my left foot was hit with gout, making it impossible to drive my 03 GT. It's not the first time an illness or injury made it impractical to drive my car, and often I find it difficult to get someone who knows how to drive stick to move it for me. I was wondering if anyone else has had problems like this.

[808 Vibes]

Sorry to hear that. You mean Casper the spooky eyes guy can't drive a stick? I hope you get better and back in that sweet ride again soon

[ou.grizzly]

Sorry to hear about the Gout. Did the physician recommend you changing your diet by avoiding foods with high levels of purine (uric acid) and are they monitoring your kidney function at all? Here is some information for you including a very knowledgeable one:http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/gout/D ... .htmlQuote »Foods High in Uric AcidStudies have shown that foods high in uric acid play a major role in the development and aggravation of diseases such as gout. In conjunction with a healthy lifestyle and changes in diet, it can actually be easier to manage than many people believe, as long as the sufferer is willing to make some significant changes in their eating habits.Gout is a painful disease that is most common in men, especially older men, but can also affect women. It is caused by a condition called hyperuricemia, which means that there is actually too much uric acid in the blood. While uric acid is actually a waste product left over from metabolism of chemical compounds called purines, it can also be found in some foods and alcohol.Diets to reduce uric acid are extremely helpful in lowering levels of uric acid in the body, and will usually involve reducing or cutting out foods that have high levels of purines.Normally, uric acid is eliminated from the body by the kidneys and a bit of hyperuricemia usually does very little harm. In fact, most people with high levels of uric acid in the blood never develop gout. However, some people are more sensitive to high levels of uric acid, and their bodies will form crystals that accumulate in the joints and cause painful gout symptoms.The main goals of treatment for gout are relieving the chronic pain that comes with this disease as well as prevention of future gout attacks. Left untreated, it can also lead to long term problems like joint destruction and, ultimately, kidney damage. Diets to reduce uric acid also benefit gout sufferers by helping them lose weight, which has also been shown to help lower concentrations of uric acid in the blood.Foods containing uric acid and the compounds that metabolize into uric acid include most animal meats, such as beef, pork and seafood. Poultry and ham, the "white meats," can have some degree of purine content and should be eaten very sparingly, but they are not as detrimental as the "red meats." Bacon, however, is very high in purines due to the processing used to make it ready for human consumption and should be avoided. Alcohol and breads which contain yeast are also foods high in uric acid that should be kept out of the diet.Black cherry juice, also known as sour cherry or bitter cherry, is also being used in great quantities to help relieve the symptoms of gout in conjunction with diets to reduce uric acid. Celery seed extract and bromelain are some popular alternative medicine remedies that have been used as natural anti-inflammatories and have been well received by those who suffer chronic inflammation. Adding eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and folic acid to the diet can also assist in reducing inflammation in gout episodes.By eliminating some foods high in uric acid from the diet, many gout sufferers have found some measure of relief from their pain and taken back control over their bodies that they feel had been taken away from them. Diets to reduce uric acid are also quite beneficial in conjunction with other natural therapies such as heat therapy and acupuncture, and many people are reporting a definite decrease in pain and other symptoms simply by making a few changes to their diet and lifestyle.

[Herb]

Quote, originally posted by HawaiiPontiacLover »Sorry to hear that. You mean Casper the spooky eyes guy can't drive a stick? I hope you get better and back in that sweet ride again soon My brother in law with the glowy red eyes lives in the Vancouver area and I have no idea if he drives stick or not.Quote, originally posted by ou.grizzly »Sorry to hear about the Gout. Did the physician recommend you changing your diet by avoiding foods with high levels of purine (uric acid) and are they monitoring your kidney function at all? I actually had some blood tests done last week and he says nothing out of the ordinary came up. I don't really eat that much red meats. As for non yeast bread, I haven't looked into that too much. This is the third occurrence in the last 2 years.Other than gout, I've had other issues over the years that prevented me from driving such as really bad back spasms, or when I had open heart surgery to replace an infected valve. Though the heart surgery prevented me from driving period.

[ramenboy...]

hey herb, hope it clears up quickly! i didn't have gout, but once time when i still had my 85 gti, i screwed up my right shoulder and wondered how i was going to drive the car home. it was crazy. the right arm was useless, so i had to reach over and shift w my left

[Herb]

Quote, originally posted by ramenboy... »hey herb, hope it clears up quickly! i didn't have gout, but once time when i still had my 85 gti, i screwed up my right shoulder and wondered how i was going to drive the car home. it was crazy. the right arm was useless, so i had to reach over and shift w my leftThanksKinda reminds me when I had an 88 Dodge Shadow ES. In the winter it got really hard to shift so I actually used my right knee to assist in pushing my arm to help with shifting

[tribalman]

i haven't had anything like this affect me and the vibe. but when i was still using the family car to get to/from work at one time i did break my collar bone so i couldn't use my left arm. big deal, it was an autotrans minivan.another time i had dislocated my right knee. i was supposed be off it for 2 weeks but i got bored and went out driving to visit friends a few days later. at least we had the mini-van. xD my whole leg had to be straight in a harness and i couldn't bend it(btw i'm 6'4"). yeah, i was pressing the pedals with my left foot and had my right slung across the center console into the passenger foot area. XD funny to do.hope you feel better. i know i miss driving my vibe when i'm at work for 6 hours. i was devistated when i didn't have the vibe for a week once. get well soon!

[ou.grizzly]

Quote, originally posted by Herb »I actually had some blood tests done last week and he says nothing out of the ordinary came up. I don't really eat that much red meats. As for non yeast bread, I haven't looked into that too much. This is the third occurrence in the last 2 years.Other than gout, I've had other issues over the years that prevented me from driving such as really bad back spasms, or when I had open heart surgery to replace an infected valve. Though the heart surgery prevented me from driving period.That is a lot to go through in such a relatively short time; I do wish you the best and to good health! Does the physician know your medical history; i.e in the effect of your cardiac surgery? Well, if the CBC came back normal (meaning the BUN and Creatinine are normal) then this leads me to believe kidney function is normal, but it would not hurt for him to look into a 24 Hour Urinalysis to get a better idea on what is going on. Since you do have a history of cardiac episodes, this leads me to believe you are on some type of medication which can affect the liver and kidneys.