It's official ...I'm an old lady :0

So my appointment with the foot doctor went well, surprisingly well actually.
I liked him. He listened well. Was firm but not rough. And he explained himself well without dropping too deep into the technical jargon end of the swimming pool.
The pain on my bunion (which by the way definitely isn't your run of the mill bunion if my freaky looking xrays are to be believed) is, he thinks, get this, gout! I just about dropped through the floor when he said it. I mean really...really!? A. I'm too damn young to have gout B. I don't eat hardly anything on the list that causes gout C . I'm pretty darn active and  D. I'm too damn young to have gout! Sorry that one deserved reiterating. He said that it was very rare for a woman my age to have it, but all signs, pictures, etc pointed in that direction. Bleck.
He dubbed the worst of my current pain as peroneal tendonitis and the stiffness as soft tissue/muscle damage. He gave me two options. Wear this little padded bit under my foot for two weeks to see if that helps at all or wear The Boot. Guess which one I chose? Apparently the little padded bit will tell him if I am a good candidate for orthotics which would take the work load off that tendon which would in turn help with the other damage since my foot and ankle wouldn't be over compensating anymore. He said there was a 60% chance that a simple orthotic would work.  He said that the boot would definitely help but once I took it off I'd likely go right back into pain.
So here's the current plan. Wear the padded bit for two weeks, pay very close attention to my pain levels. Then if it has helped at all, get casted for orthotics. If it hasn't helped or it hurts worse, it'll either be the boot or an AFO. He thinks an articulated AFO would be best for me at the moment. If that doesn't work, surgery. Honestly I'll quit my job before I get that far.
He did say that I needed to prepare myself for surgery probably one way or another. He expects that by the time I'm 40 or 50 it'll be a necessity. I really really hope he's wrong, and I can beat those odds and live a nice long active surgery free life.
One doc visit down, one to go. Now that its out of the way I can feel myself getting really nervous about our RE consultation.