For those of you who have been poking around my blog (stop it! it tickles!) as far back as August of 2009 may remember when I had the battle with something that followed textbook gout.
Quick summary: within 24 hours my left big toe joint went from stiff to immobile and excruciating just to touch and I was a limping, whiny mess. I toughed it out for a couple days, resorted to using the broke-foot boot I still have from college, and when I got to the doc and the labs came back: not gout because my uric acid wasn't high enough, it was lasting too long, and the swelling wasn't huge.
That was my GP.
FF to yesterday where that thing I just said happened again to my right big toe. This time I went right away to a Orthopedic surgeon with a podiatry focus. And what did he say? Um, totally gout. Blood uric acid levels can be misleading and swelling varies by person.
And he stuck a needle in the joint and filled it with cortisone. That sucked.
So, we're going to revise my 2009 experience to say: WAS gout. And now I've got it again. Hopefully for less time, and hopefully with the clear memory of holding my head in a pain that bent my sanity at 3am as impetus to make some dietary and lifestyle changes.
Yay gout!
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9 comments:
Whoa! Gout sucks big time. More veggies for you! Seriously, hope your flare-up dies down soon.
Man, I've been hearing about a lot of people with gout lately.
Last year one of my friends had it. He's my age, so he was 28. And last week, another friend had it and she's only 25.
Forget diabetes and cancer. Gout is the new scourge of today's society!
What colour would the ribbon for gout be? Brown? Gout sounds like a brown ribbon to me.
Soon there'll be telethons!
Fundraising walks for gout relief!
I don't mean to make fun. (Ok, I do a little. Just because 'gout' is a funny word.) I can see how painful it is though. And I hear the medicine for it makes you really sick and loopy.
Out with gout '88!
Hope they give you the good stuff. If you have to take meds, why not fly a little while.
Brown is totally the color to go with Kyna. All kinds of food causes it. For me it wasn't shell fish but all the deli meat I carried around I my jumper for those snake emergencies. Those were all some shade of brown. But it wasn't too bad for me. One week between boo boo and happy toe. Anti-inflamatories and I was fine.
But I attribute that to cutting out massive amounts of sugar and salt and perservatives from my diet after getting the scary type 2 diabetes diagnosi a couple of months earlier and some medication to regulate my glucose levels. Who knew?
I also don't enjoy the way my doctor makes me guess what I think is wrong with me before he nods in agreement. Who did all the studying for medical school? Me or him? Why don't I have his sweet parking space? What the do I need him for but to push me pharmaseudicals? I swear if I had a perscription pad I would be free from his insane South African ideas that suffering from something that deprives you of what you like to eat is a good thing. His signature is also just a slightly curvy line. Any two year old could fake it. If I remember he went on some crazy rant about how everyone in North America eats too many TOMATOES. What the hell is with all the tomatoes is all he could say over and over again. I answered him that people like tomatoes and he became indignant with me and said "No they don't!"
Clearly at that point I have nothing productive to add to the conversation. But I do enjoy the fact that he is young and dynamic and will live for 200 yrs. I take great joy in the fact that he will be miserable because people won't agree with him about the tomatoes and would gladly trade all those BLTs for a good 70 years of extra life on this dreary planet.
So why do I stay? It's my canned answer - his ennui is delicious to me.
He works nearly all the time so I can see him at a moments notice. All the visits and treatments are free as are the meds. Yeh I know. Fricken SOCIALISM!
I have to admit to also just ADORING how brutally efficient but equally miserable his unit of blond Aryan Super Nurses are.
Debra- Yes, sucks bad, but an update soon. Veggies for sure - celery!
Kyna- weird, me too. Granted had it almost 2 years ago (34 now), but doc is about my age and he said that his friends are getting it - a lot. And please, make fun! My dad said, jokingly: "Guess gout's not the disease of the rich any more, huh?"
Randal- they did, but not what you think. Update in a little while.
Kal- you had a much more adventurous ride than me. But yes, it sucks. All of it sucks from the symptoms to the treatment to the limitations on diet. Fuck Gout, man!
Ugh. So sorry! I thought I had gout too (internet diagnosis) and my allergy doc thought so too (irrelevant diagnosis), but it has been pronounced to be not-gout by a rheumatologist, one of 3 specialists I have seen for this set of problems, and have been referred to a 4th - so I still don't really have any answers.
I had one of those cortisone shots in the elbow last year. OW OW OW.
Best of luck.
:o(
Besides the horrible agony of an undiagnosed condition, going to doctors who don't know what's wrong with you (but are more than happy to stick you with needles), is pretty freaking awful.
Feel better soon.
Blue- Good f'ing luck. If it looked like gout, it probably was.
Cram- At least now I know what it is, and the (painful) stick of cortisone is the lovely quick-fix.
Now, the diet change...
Ricky and all other gout sufferers, add lemon juice to your diet. If you have a flare up, reach for the lemons. I'm talking REAL lemons and not the fake stuff in the bottle that says 100% lemon juice. I know this works overnight too.
When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. I joke, but it really works.
2 quick stories. My brother-in-law was suffering a massive attack and couldn't walk. His ankle and foot was swollen. It just so happens it was summer and my family was gathering for our annual summer vacation. This means I make my lemon ice box cake. (lemon filling made with real lemons btw). So his wife brought him a piece and in the morning, most of the swelling was gone and he could walk with just a little pain. No one knew why.
Later I did some research on gout and found that lemon juice was listed as a natural way to fight gout, much like your cherry juice. hmmm, interesting. So I called my sister, told her of my findings, and anytime he has a flare up (he drinks) he reaches for the lemons.
2nd story. A coworker of mine, a rather large man, came to work in a walking boot and said he could hardly walk this morning because of his gout. I told him on his way home to get some lemons and make lemonade. Next morning, no boot. He also reaches for lemons anytime he has a flare up.
Try it. Good luck.
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