I have flat feet and a bit of a bunion. When I walk a lot my feet hurt (particularly my right foot) and I will limp a little. This has been going on for years.

Last week I took my son and a friend of his to Europe for a week. By the end of the week my right foot was hurting and I was doing my usual limp. However, my foot hurt only while I was walking, and it was no big deal.

On the 10-hour flight home, my "bunion" started hurting, and I do mean hurt. I didn't know my foot had a nerve that was capable of hurting that much. The bunion area swelled up, but so did much of my whole foot. I managed to hop off the plane, with no shoe, and was offered a wheelchair, which I accepted. The guy wheeled me all the way to the Chicago airport Hilton, where I paid a fortune for two rooms. I did not care.

I posted a photo of my "bunion" on Facebook and within 10 minutes a doctor friend of mine said "that looks like gout." Several other people agreed, as did my doctor. I'm currently on steroids, anti-inflammatories, and a fairly strong pain pill for night. It really hurt.

Is it common for a flight to trigger a gout attack? My wife's feet tend to swell during flights, but I've never had that problem; however, my "gout" foot is still swollen. I can walk on it a little bit, but I wouldn't dare try to put a shoe on it, and this is two days later.

I drank more beer in Europe than I usually do, and ate more meat, too (I'm usually not much of a meat eater). Also, I usually drink six to eight cans of seltzer water every day, which keeps me hydrated and presumably flushes my system. I drank very little water in Europe, as it's just hard to get water in Europe.

Any thoughts of how to prevent another attack, particularly one while in the air. I've already said it hurt, but it like really hurt, as in as bad as anything has ever hurt, with no stopping.