Gout

Anyone ever get this or have had it before? I hate this stuff. I've been getting it about once a year for the past several years. I never had it before until about five years ago. I guess as you get older your body changes and things like this happen. And I always get it the same spot. It always goes straight to an area in and around my two middle toes. Extremely painful! Especially when you have to work on it all day. Just an infected, red, achy, throbbing mess. It almost produces a fever type effect in the affected area as well. Then you end up with other sprains and aches in the same foot and ankle from having to compensate for the pain by walking on the side of your foot. If I could just unscrew my right leg from the knee down I'd be okay.

I've heard that it tends to travel to where an old injury was. I'm pretty sure that I fractured that toe area in the past and like clockwork when I get it gout it goes straight to that area. And I've also heard that its causes can be different for different people. I'm convinced that for me the root cause lies in tomatoes. I love them. I have an Uncle who says he can't eat tomatoes because it gives him gout. I recently made a big batch of chili that incorporates not only lots of diced tomatoes but also tomato paste. I also hear that soda and alcohol can exacerbate the issue.

Now as far as cures go, my Dad says cherry juice is supposed to help. He used to get it bad when he was younger in his knee or foot. Often it would hit him if he twisted said knee or foot. He told me that he used to be prescribed something called colchezine by doctors that would knock gout out in a day but would also keep you in the can all day as a result. Thankfully my doctor prescribed me something called Indomethacin that I take about three times a day and it seems to really cure it for the most part in a couple of days thankfully without the diarrhea.

Ah, the disease of Kings!

How old are you Coot?

34

Try hydrotherapy (hot tub) It worked wonders for me after my accident.
There were guys who suffered from gout at the pool as well.

The heat didn't aggravate it? I thought cold such as ice packs were better?

I Google the images because I wasn't sure what you were talking about and OUCH!

I wish you well!

Your scaring me, have had more broken toes and fingers and ribs then I can count in 53 years.
Never suffered from gout thank god, Know many who have and what horribly painful experience they
suffered through. Lately I have had hyper sensitive nerves in my small finger tip sides, like
they are being brushed by a million needles and fire just by lightly touching the side of of
my finger. Wakes me up at night moving around. Hoping its not related, since it was seriously
broken in a work accident years ago. just about lost it. Price you pay I guess.

Had it a few years ago> The doctor - an old Chinese* gentleman with twinkly eyes - saw me come in and shouted happily "Ah, you have gout!" from the way I was walking. Yes, he did some tests to confirm it.
Most common cause for gout is too much protein: fish/seafood, certain beers (mostly the wheat ones) and soy products.
In my case a simple NSAID (Ibuprofen IIRC) helped - it will bring the inflammation down.


* ...but using normal evidence-based medical skills, no TCM.

Cold exacerbates it, the reason it almost always strikes the lowest extremities is because it's caused by uric acid crystals precipitating out of suspension and cold fluids hold less uric acid. The feet are the coolest extremities in most people. My boss gets it bad, I think he found that a few tablespoons of raw vinegar every day keeps it at bay better than anything else. Red meats and anything with purines make it worse. I'll take my arthritic big toes any day.

Yeah its pretty painful. Especially when I have 250lbs of weight on my foot and working on it. Little microscopic uric acid crystal knives digging into the joints. As painful as it can get though, I'm sure its not as bad as having broken ribs there JimK. Now I hear that's painful!

Yup. Fought it for years. Painful stuff. Roast Beef would trigger it with me inside 6 hours.

Best natural remedy I ever found is Apple Cider Vinegar. Usually killed it in about 12 hours.

Now, the Doc has me on Alipurinol and I have not had an attack in years.

Funny story... first attack I ever had, the nurse practitioner thought I did something to my foot and ordered electrical shock therapy on my foot. I just about died when they turned the juice on. Never felt pain like that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_gout_james_gillray.jpg

Curious depiction of the condition.

From here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gout

Yeah, broken ribs are painfull for sure. Makes it even worse if you have cold with it. Sneeze
and coughing feel like your ripping apart your insides. Passed out one time after sneezing.
My wife freaked out and called it in to 911 right away. Woke up with EMT`s taking my vitals.
When I told them what had happened they packed up and headed back. Since there is nothing anyone
can do for broken ribs.

Wearing the band will only give some comfort if your not moving much. I found them to painful
to wear.

Desert Eagle that pic always gets me! I get gout here and there and the last time I limped around for 3 weeks and actually begged my doctor to just cut the toe off.He thought I was crazy and just kept insisting I cut out the excessive drinking instead LOL.Gout is crazy because the cure is to not live a life of excess plain and simple.My last attack was so bad because I forgot I will always have to be careful with gout and ate liver every day for a week which is the highest purine content food around.When the weekened rolled around I drank an 18 pack.I woke up saturday in tears for I knew what I had done and the suffering I would now have to deal with for who knows how long.

And on to a funny gout story King Charles I of Spain, also known as Holy Roman Emperor Charles V was a heavy gout sufferer and times of peace coincided with his gout attacks.His throne even had a built in footrest for the attacks.What I found funny about this is that people from all over Europe came to visit him and present cures for the gout.One guy told him that he needed to drink as much alcohol as he could and that would cure the gout and the King,who loved to drink in excess,took up the medication advice in earnest....and was bed ridden for a year.LMAO I just wonder what happened to that poor soul?!

Got my first real hit at about the same age as you. I was living in Japan at the time and I thought I'd broken a bone in my foot when I first tried to stand on it.

Had a hell of a time understanding what the doctor was telling me as the literal Japanese translation is pain wind.

I take 200mg of allupurinol daily. I rarely get an attack but when I do, I take indomethacin and it helps clear it up in a few days.

http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplement...ientname=celery

sprinkle celery seeds on a salad, used to remove uric acid deposits, may take a while

Used to get it bad!! Enough to make a grown man cry!

Was put on Puricos by the doc and after a year the attacks stopped completely. Haven't had an episode in well over 5 years.

About a year ago had it so bad couldn't walk for 3 days and took a week before I could walk without any pain. It was on the side of my right foot just behind the small toe.

Still there as a very minor dull ache.

Sounds pretty miserable, especially around toe joints. You never think about how much you use those all the time until you hurt them. Toe pain sucks.
Uric acid is also key in forming one of the types of kidney stones. Are you getting those as well? Might be on the way if not.

I have taken a pill(Allopurinol) every day for twenty years and have not had gout since.

Coot:Listen to your Dad! I have gout also. I am taking daily pills and haven't had a bout in months. One Friday before taking the pills, I woke up with a severe case. I could barely walk and couldn't get in to see my doctor (no appointments available). I read about cherries helping. My wife went out and got a pound (expensive in February) and I ate the whole pound. Wasn't bad because I love cherries. I woke up the next morning and it was 90% better! Now the pills are helping but I keep some cherry juice handy, just in case.

I've never tried it but I need too. I heard it needs to be organic cherry juice too. Just called in for a refill for the Indomethacin so hopefully the doctor will give the go ahead. I can move my toes now but its still there and I can't shake it. Took a half day off for it. I've worked on it worse than it is right now but it was also hellacious. No thank you. Just give me the good stuff to knock it out fast.

I suffered big time with gout, from my late-20's to early 40's. For me it seemed to be triggered by Diet Coke and/or Diet Dr. Pepper binges, I'm talking 6+ cans a day.

It was a 5-day process for me, starting with a soreness around my big toe joint to day 4 when I couldn't tolerate the breeze from a ceiling fan! Forget even wearing socks or covering with even a paper thin sheet. If I caught it early enough, drinking tons of water and hitting the little white pills (I forget the name, starts with a "C") I could stop it...sometimes.

I haven't had a case of gout in over 6 years. Solution: Lose the weight (if you have any to lose) and eat/drink as healthy as you can. The severe nose bleeds and other <cough> intermittent personal issues also never returned (thank God if there is one), although the other problems may have been due to severe untreated hypertension.

Yeah, I don't plan to go back to that lifestyle.

Forgot to mention, I got it in both feet (not at the same time) and once in my ankle. I thought it was sprained, x-ray showed no break so they wrapped it as a sprain. I had the wrap off even before we got home, it was then I realized I had gout (only happened there once).

If it happens too many times in the same place, it can damage the joint (and I may have a little, I find treadmill running to be more comfortable these days than pavement). I remember at my worst getting it about every 3 months.

I have pics somewhere of this big red swollen bulge on the side of my foot, if I find them I'll post them.

Yeah I need to loose at least fifty pounds. About two years ago on a good day I was down to 215lbs. I was doing sit ups and push ups. Started out barely doing ten. Then I got to where I could barely do twenty then I got to where I could do twenty no problem multiple times a day with a burst of 30 at the end of the night. That was a BIG deal for me. Probably hadn't weighed that since high school. I think a combo of stress, bad work environment and job that I've grown to hate plus a few bad habits has contributed to a bad cycle I've got myself into. I need help and I need out!

I've told my life story here too many times, in summary...

Skinny wife didn't understand that we all don't have nuclear-stroked metabolisms, but she found out in her 30's that it doesn't last forever. Now she has to work hard on it too, we push each other every freaking day to make the right decisions, it's the only way I can keep it up consistently.

Unless you're single, but then at least you don't have someone potentially working against you, bringing home junk, fast food, sodas, evening of couch + TV.

I've slipped pretty badly since losing the weight in 2009 (although never back to where I started, about half), mainly from not moving enough because my healthy eating never completely faltered. But I'm trying to finish what I started this year, to hopefully put it in the past forever.

It's been a while since I've posted a personal pic on the "Face with a Name" thread, I'll post pics of us at the upcoming ballet and/or the Rush concert (club seats on the Alex side again, whoooo!).

Ah, gout. Good old gout...

I get it, my brother gets it, my dad gets it, my aunt gets it and my Granddad used to get it. Seems the family on my dad's has a genetic predisposition to it. First time I got it I thought I had broken my toe. Got this searing pain if it even lightly touched something. Couldnt even wear a sock for a week. Nasty. I tend to get it most often in my big toe and my ankle. My knee is screwed from years of skateboarding and I've had real problems with it recently. I think I've had a couple of gouty episodes with it already.

As for what cause it, welllll, that's the million dollar question. There are some things I know cause it for sure: lots of types of lagers and beers ( if I drink even two bottles of Peroni Nastro Azzuro I know I'll be virtually crippled the next day. Funnily enough the Italain domestic red labeled Peroni doesn't affect me at all, neither does their Gran Reserva.) New season lamb has a bad hit, which is annoying because lamb is one of my favourite things to eat, and anything with a lot of processed sugar, like fruit pasties, wine gums, etc also have a bad effect. Someone brought in a box of those 70s style sweets like Refreshers and sherbet dips to work before Christmas, almost couldn't walk for the first four or five days of the holidays because I was munching them down on tea breaks.

You know what helps? Over the last few years I was going to the gym 3-5 times a week and being really careful about what I ate. The gout disappeared entirely until the last year when I've kind of been really slacking at looking after myself. The first thing to come back along with a re-expanding waistline was the gout. And it came back bad. My brother gets allopurinol for his gout. I'd rather just get fit again and not eat crap than take a pill every day. And I HATE the gym.

Still, look on the bright side. At lest you don't get kidney stones like my aunt, grandad and I. Kidney stones are the only thing I know that can take your mind off gout pain. Mind you, kidney stones could probably take your mind off being shot in the chest. The. Worst. Pain. You. Will. Ever. Have. Apparently it's the same genetic disposition. Aren't I lucky?

I've had kidney stones and will bear witness to the level of pain described.

However, I'll take them over gout.

One has morphine administered to them during a kidney stone incident. Almost makes it worth getting them.

Yeah kidney stones scare me. Thankfully last time they checked me when I was getting gout there was no sign of it. A fellow I work with talked about getting a straw or tube shoved up his yeehaw so that he could later piss them out. Don't want that please.

I took this pic last night while on this thread, didn't get around to posting it...




This is what it takes to keep away the gout (for me), a good diet.

In both bowls (our standard salad):

cut spinach
tomato
avocado
fake crab (sometimes shrimp or grilled chicken)
boiled egg
Asian crunchy thingies
grated Colby cheese

Add to mine (more Mediterranean):

Sliced mushroom
Black olives
Artichoke hearts
Olive oil

Honey mustard dressing (Grey Poupon mixed with local honey)

++++++++++

Tonight (every Wednesday night) is our "fast food" night:

Both a 12” Subway Black Forest Ham on Honey Oat (add at home additional veggies like mushroom, avocado, etc.). Eat half tonight and save other half for lunch tomorrow, with a handful of Whole Foods veggie chips (or sweet potato "fries").

Friday nights is Sushi Night (my favorite).

++++++++++

My father has had kidney stones, holy hell they looked painful! I'm hoping to avoid that too.

Is it just me or does anyone else want to clean his laptop screen...

Forgive me as I'm slow sometimes, are you talking about my pic?

If my screen looks dirty it's because my camera sucks, and I take low res pics for the board.

I can't make it any cleaner (same for my 15 year old desktop and all my other equipment, still looks brand new [even keyboard and mouse]). It's the only way I can tolerate old crusty technology, by at least having a super clean and fresh looking environment.

I like the old gear MarkG. Brings up warm fuzzy feelings.

Stones are a real female dog. Extracting wisdom teeth without being put under would be real pleasurable compared to passing stones, especially the small ruff ones.

Last time I had one was when I was on holiday in Sicily in 2009. I had a twinge of it before we left but I just assumed I'd past it. It reappeared with a vengeance when we were getting the bus from Palermo to Syracuse. I think driving right across the interior of the island must have bumped it loose. That's about 5 hours of my life I never want to have again. That horrible too-sore-to-sit-but-too-sore to stand pain isn't really suitable to bus travel..:D. Was fine the next day so I must have gotten rid of it OK. couldn't have been very big, which kind of makes the blinding pain even more scary.

Its the pictures with the two bowels. There is a smiley at the bottom of the laptop screen that looks like a dirt smudge

Funny, I dont see any intestines next to the laptop. Maybe I'm missing something?

lol. It's time to retreat and regroup! You have not seen the last of me though PM!

No Coot....that's one I don't have.

But if your talking about 'pain'....try a 9mm kidney stone. That'll set you back on your @ss, I can attest to that. I've had 3, all when I was in my 20's. I learned to drink a lot of water....all day. Keep the kidneys flushed, and never had another one. Kidney stones are the king of pain. Especially when they get around 8-9mm.
After 10mm they just remove them surgically. Or break them up with sound waves. Mine were all before the sound wave machine. Mine were all 'Calcium' stones, two 8mm and one 9mm. Took me 4-5 hours a day, for 4 days, to deliver the 9mm stone. Once it reaches your bladder it's fine. It's going through the urethra, from the kidney to the bladder, that hurts. It was...painful, rolling around on the bedroom floor. Even the morphine didn't touch it. Nothing would. I passed out once. It's quite an experience.

'Gout'....nope haven't had that one....'yet'.

Sounds like some good advice, on how to ease the pain here though.
Good luck

Thanks and you guys are scaring me with your stone stories. **shivers**

Kidney stones

I know women who gave childbirth "naturally" without pain medicine and said kidney stones were far more painful.

But aren't we all old people discussing our medical histories! Shall I regale you with the tale of the colonoscopy I had last week?

Are we talking gout or arthritis?


Arthritis in my feet is killing me. Also my hands.

Age, we all want to age, not die young, but the price is very high. I used to wonder what made people just give up and die. Now I know, pain is better than death, even though extreme, but I understand people taking a different road.