Experiencing my second bout of gout, I searched to see when my first episode occurred. I was pleased to see it’s been over a year!!
The reason I am so happy is because I ignored much of the great advice I received here and from my MD. My thinking was, before changing my diet or taking medication, I’d see how long I’d go before another episode.
We had a small party last week. Someone asked why I was walking funny. I explained I had gout. A woman replied, “No, you don’t have gout”. If not for the pain, I would have explained about having a uric acid level determined and receiving a diagnosis of gout. Instead, I replied,“Fuck you. I don’t even fucking know you, and you’re here eating my food and calling me a liar.”
She apologized, introduced herself (a friend of my sister, they came together), and explained that she questioned me only because she thought I was joking. See, I was eating and drinking from the “Worst Things For Gout” list.
So, I made 14 months free of gout while drinking a ton of beer and eating my regular diet. Initially, I was drinking gallons of water in an effort to excrete more uric acid. Lately I’ve neglected this and have now started back up. If I can avoid flareups for 14 months at a time, I’ll accept the yearly week of agony!
You are a better man than me, with all that talk about accepting a flareup every year or so. I had several flareups a few years ago, maybe 3 or 4 over a three-year window. That was plenty enough for me. I made decisions about my diet and lifestyle to mitigate me EVER getting another bout of the gout. So far so good. I learned which foods and drinks are risky for me, and just plan accordingly (I dont avoid anything, just try to limit exposure, and combinations of things that may be risky). Plenty of exercise, too, and lots of water. No pharmaceuticals.
Exercise and water, sure---- but seeing as I like to drink, and enjoy the occasional sardine, mussel, or even a bit of marmite, allopurinol seems like a prudent measure. So far, so good.
Yeah, I might break down and talk to my doctor about allopurinol. I thought this bout was resolving, then last night things became bad again. And today is Wednesday, (one of) my beer day. Haven’t had a beer in six days!!! (although last night I had a bottle of Pinot Grigio)
Everything in moderation, right? On a recent bike trip, we were treated to several dozen fresh oysters on the bbq. Quite a treat! I had thoughts of a flare-up, but the amount of water I had been drinking before and after, plus the vigorous exercise, and lack of any other potentially irritating foods, kept the uric acid at bay, evidently.
The worst gout attack I ever had was after drinking too much beer on a really hot day and getting very dehydrated. We were dove hunting and after the attack started I considered just shooting my toe off because certainly that would have involved less pain.
I have learned that one of the biggest triggers of gout for me is yeast. As my homebrewing took off, so did my gout. I am now off of the fancy beer, except for a little here and there. I am taking 100mg Allopurinal daily, and drinking as much mass produced, *filtered, *beer as I like (coors light), and incrementally adding more meat into my diet. So far so good, nothing noteworthy gout-wise for 5 months or so now.
Had a FatHead’s HeadHunter IPA, a Hebrew Hop Manna IPA, and a Bullfrog Hop Harvest Premium Bitter/ESB last night. After a week off of beer,I was in heaven.
