Oh, so THAT'S what gout feels like!

Lotsa pain in my feet, especially the left. And especially since I found that ALDI delivers a tasty and cheap braunschweiger (liver sausage). I remembered that organ meats are a trigger, and daughter thinks I shoulda learned that from King of the Hill like she did.

First attack felt like my fifth metatarsal was being rebroken where I broke it in high school. That time my bro took me to the hospital and diagnosed it as a broken fifth metatarsal with all the authority that a guy attending Johns Hopkins but not a premed could muster. He gloated.

The rest of the liver sausage is for the dogs.

Oh no. You have gout and my sympathy. The have good meds for that now. Have you been to the doctor? No rich foods.

My father has had several gout attacks. He loved almonds, and an occasional can of sardines (something I’ve never tried) but those are verboten for life.

I’ve had women tell me that they would rather have a baby any day of the week before they would go through a gout attack again.

wow my old doc told me to eat all the braunschweiger I can because that and liverwurst are the only way I can stand liver and I needed the iron…

Iron pills?

I was taking those too ……

Are you related to Royalty. A bout of gout. (Ha, it rhymes) The disease of kings.

Nah. Have his doc put him on allopurinol. I used to get gout terribly. My big toe would swell up like a shiny red baloon.

When I first got gout I was told about all the grub I couldn’t eat. When beer made the list I swore I’d die crippled first. Allopurinol takes the uric acid out of the blood. I eat/drink whatever I want and haven’t had a flare for over 10 years! And it’s cheap. $10 for a 90 day supply.

Some people take indomethacin when they have a flare. But that stuff can upset your stomach like crazy and make you feel sleepy. Better to prevent gout with allo than try to fix it with indo.

Seconded. I take 100mg twice a day and haven’t had an attack since I gave up homebrew. Turns out that for me yeast was one of the causes.

Ah, gout. I got my first attack on my honeymoon, and thought I’d broken my foot. Spent the rest of my honeymoon in bed with absolutely nothing touching my foot.
Different medications and treatments work for different people. I’ve been taking allopurinol for years, and it’s been great. Other people swear by colchicine (which does nothing for me). Or Cherry juice (ditto). If I’m having an attack, then usually Indocin/indomethacine can do wonders, but I very rarely need that anymore.
In all cases, don’t just take the word of other people – even informed, well-intentioned other people. discuss this with your doctor.

It’s hard to get someone who hasn’t had gout to appreciate the pain. a pain in your toe? How bad can THAT be? But you can’t WALK without your toe. And “toe” extends well into the foot. Besides, it’s not just like a normal pain that stays at a constant intensity, and you can eventually get used to. Gout feels as if it’s working t the pain, re-applying it every second or so, so that it’s at a constant high pitch.

the worst attack I had, not even the indocine could tame. My foot was swollen and red and hot. I tried applying ice in a towel, but the towel hurt too much, so I put the ice directly on my skin, and could watch it rapidly melt. At that point I knew what I had to do. I filled a bucket with ice and water and plunged my foot into it. It instantlu cooled the heat and numbed my foot to the pain and started to reduce the swelling. It didn’t get rid of the pain, but it made it bearable. I was up all night with my foot in the bucket, watching one epic movie after another on my DVD player.

My gout continues to be held at bay with water, lots of water.

I eat braunschweiger, mussels, sardines, etc all I want and I drink even more beer than I did pre-gout. I take no medication. But I drink a shit-ton of water. I get up two or three times overnight to pee, but I’ve gotten used to that. If I skimp a bit on water intake I can feel a twinge in my gout toe and I chug a quart quickly.

I can also swear to the efficacy of allopurinol and massive amounts of water. I no longer have the excruciating pain of gout. Joints still hurt from time to time, but the “pain dial” no longer goes up to eleven!

I got it in my 20s (I was massively out of shape) and it may have been the worst pain I ever felt. It was in my right foot and I had to drive my Dad to a medical test while I had it. It was awful. To this day I won’t eat Beef two days in a row because of it because at the time that was a suggestion from my doctor.

I have self-diagnosed gout in my left big toe, but I’ve never gone to a doctor to have it confirmed. The first two attacks were separated by several months and each lasted a week or two then quietly went away. Then I was gout free for about two years but had another attack between Thanksgiving and Christmas this past year and thought I was going to die! Then became afraid that I wouldn’t! It finally went away after consuming a steady stream of ibuprofen and black cherry juice and regular applications of ice packs, but I’ve been meaning to see a doctor to actually verify if it’s truly gout or some other form of arthritis, bunions, or what. WebMD recommends seeing a GP for gout, but I don’t think my regular GP would be up for making a diagnosis. So I’ve been torn between making an appointment with a Rheumatologist, or possibly a Podiatrist, but don’t know which would be better. Any recommendations as to which kind of doctor to visit from the Teeming Masses?

That’s good info.

The first time I got gout, I thought I had somehow broken my toe in my sleep. Shit does it hurt. GET THAT SHEET OFF MY FOOT! GAAAAHAHAH!

I have done indomethacin, but will look into Allopurinol.

Currently, I can tell when an attack is coming (maybe twice a year) and Alleve seems to help.

I think, if you have a current attack you have to take another medicine (my husband took Colchicine) to clear the current attack before you can go on Allopurinol as a maintenance drug.

Your General Practitioner can draw blood for uric acid levels. Serum levels paired with clinical signs make the diagnosis.

OK. I’ll be sure to go see him the next time it flares up and have him draw some blood. He’s at least good for that. Thanks.

First things first. It’s not “gout”. It’s “the gout”.

:slight_smile:

I haven’t had an episode in years, but yeah, not fun. I even had it in my hand once.

Colchicine worked wonders addressing my acute attacks, but it gives you the raging runs. Don’t stray far from the terlit.

Actually, there may be better options these days. I have not been keeping up with the latest info recently.
mmm

Ditto here. After several attacks right after I turned 40, I made some changes in diet and that seems to have solved things. I can eat anything I want, but need to plan. For example, if I am having saba (mackerel at a Japanese restaurant), then I need to chug water and go meatless or without other triggers for a day on either side of that meal. I think dehydration can help bring-on an attack, at least with me, if other risks are present (consuming trigger foods). I was able to control things with diet and exercise. Yes, I ran a marathon AFTER I had gout, so you are not permanently damaged (altho it feels like it).

I was told the only way to 100% confirm if it is gout is for a doctor to stick a needle directly into the joint and suck-out some of the fluid, and examine for crystals. I am not sure they would be able to determine that from a simple blood test (altho they could see if you had elevated uric acid). The idea of a needle in the joint during a flare-up is not enticing.