Living with gout

I got it a couple years ago. Worst was about 1 1/2 years ago when I had it in my toe/foot for 2 weeks. I actually considered cutting my foot off with an ax it hurt so bad. I've been on Allopurinol since and have had no bad flareups.

I might forget my anniversary, my kids' birthdays or where I put my car keys but I NEVER forget to take my Allopurinol.

 

Wow...I didn't realize it was this common...best wishes to all.

 

Another anti-inflammatory you can take (it's prescription) is indomethacin. It can often turn an attack around, especially when you use it w/colchicine (which does indeed have various unpleasant gastric side effects).

I'm allergic to allopurinol, so my doctor put me on probenecid, which does essentially the same thing. I've also stopped drinking. I don't know which one it's due to (possibly both) but I have significantly fewer attacks today than I used to.

My doc also says I have pseudo-gout, which is like gout except the crystals formed are calcium pyrophosphate instead of uric acid. I've had my knee really swell up a few times and had to have it drain.

 

The drug of choice for an acute flare of gout (an inborn error of the body not to metabolize uric acid) is Indomethacin 50mg three times a day. steroids can sometimes be usde. Colchicine has fallen out of favor because of teh high potential fro side effect.

Allopurinol decreases the body's production of uric acid and is therefore used as a preventive drug, but is not usually prescribed in the acute flare.

 

Doc, can you talk about Uric Acid and what exactly is it.

 

Let's be careful out there. Gout is a serious problem.

 

That's serious quality.

The odds the originator of this thread actually has gout? About 1 in 1 million.

 

Used to take Indocin to treat an attack -- I recall it erased the pain in an hour or so -- but so does 800mg of Ibuprofen if you're caught without Indocin.

However, since I've been taking Allopurinol, I can't remember the last time I had a flareup. Is Allopurinol that good? Or, in old age, has my memory gotten so bad? (Thankfully, the former.)

 

I've had it in my left ankle and foot for a few years now, and man does it suck. Some of the worst pain I've ever experienced.

I've found Allopurinol sort of iffy, but with all the endorsements here, maybe I'll look into upping the dose or something.

 

This is what works for me: No beer, particularly American/Canadian in cans for some reason, lots of water, no nuts, cut way back on the meat - shrimp and beer in combination with dehydration causes mine to flare up - and yep, eat lots of cherries, which reduce the acid levels in your blood. Last time around, as soon as it started up, I also used the home back massager on my foot right away - seemed to break up the crystals, I was able to avoid the anti-inflammatories entirely and running a day later.

 

and wash them down with a fifth of jack.