I have a massive predisposition toward gout. My shitty lifestyle doesn’t help anything, but still. Anyway, my biggest trigger seems to be stress.
Apparently 5-6 days is about the lag time for a flare to really get going. I was half catatonic from virocalypse anxiety end of last week, and I’m typing this now with one foot in an ice bath because it’s the only thing that mitigates the pain to something approaching manageable. The max dose of the stiffest pain med in the house bought me three hours between two attempts last night.
I haven’t had a flare in a year and a half, and this is at least 2x the previous lowlight.
Stress used to flair my gout. Doc put me on a maintenance script of probnecid for a couple of years. One day I just upped and stopped taking it and have not had a gout flair since. Maybe 10 years ago?
I thought I was past depression, but this virus business that has removed social outlets has brought it roaring back.
I’ve had a sympathetic reaction to the virus that ate the world. Developed all the symptoms (cough, temperature, moving into congestion in my lungs and coughing up greenish stuff). Since I’m in the @ risk group by virtue of age and hi BP, a kind Urgent Care doctor named Annie tested me for COVAD. Getting my negative test results @ 1223AM Friday I will always remember, at least until my now further immune compromised body helps itself to some of the real deal.
Seriously, I am grateful to be in the position I am in. I don’t play a lot of survival type games, but maybe we are all doing that to some extent now? And we are slowly winning?
My father-in-law had a doctor call his leg problems gout, turned out it was a blood clot. He died Thursday.
But on a happier note, I have a couple friends who suffer from gout. The first time one of them mentioned it I was surprised but apparently it is a lot more common than I would have thought.
Thanks. He was old and in the end went quickly. But I did think it strange that a doctor diagnosed his discolored leg as gout rather that the blood clot it turned out to be. It probably didn’t make any difference in the final analysis but he probably would have gone into the hospital sooner had they known it was a clot.
The worst part for my wife was that because of the virus she wasn’t allowed to spend very much time with him the last week or so.
I have random body pain. Like a part of me that was perfectly fine will start hurting, sometimes for days, while some other part of me that had been hurting stops. Its slowly getting worse over time. I have complained to my doctor for years, but he doesn’t ever seem to react to this.
I also have my acute muscle pain in my fingers. Certain movements, or touching certain spots can cause sharp, but brief pain. Mostly the pain is on the sides of my fingers running the length of them. Actually its just a few fingers that seem to be the consistent complainers. Like the above random body pain, my doctor has no opinion of this.
Sometimes, apparently, two gout flares isn’t enough!
You could have a third!
There are so many different areas of the foot that could feel like Tony Soprano and a selection of goons are just going to town with hammers and screwdrivers.
There’s the outside of the foot. That hurts real bad, and traditionally is the worst as far as pulsing, resting pain goes.
There’s the ankle, which is a total motherfucker as you try and hold it still because the slightest movement makes it feel like someone set off a microbomb inside your body.
And finally, there’s the classic. The first joint on your big toe. You can sort of half-assed shuffle on your heel, with a cane, but it still fucking super hurts all the time. And when you’ve been in fucktown for a solid week, all those little stabilizer muscles in your lower leg and ankle are super fucked anyway! So enjoy a brief breath of fresh, non-pain-filled air as you surface for just the tiniest moment and think, foolishly, that you might be able to god damned function as a husband, father, engineer, or person before being sucked way back down under into the FUCK ZONE that is apparently your life now.
Our bodies can really torment us if they feel like it. I’ve had gout flareups three times in the last 5 years or so, and each one was unbearably painful. If you haven’t experienced gout you really can’t comprehend just how much a toe can hurt.
When I got it I seemed to get it from doing something to injure the joint. I almost feel like I did something that opened the joint and those uric acid crystals filled the gap and then it was welcome to, as you put it, fucktown.
Nothing like waking up at 12:45am into some Eli Roth shit.
Only pain in my life that has compared is the recovery from 12 hours of brain surgery. At least I’m not in the hospital coming down off anaesthesia for this.
A few years ago, my mother had a misdiagnosed blood clot, demanded a second opinion, and is now alive because of it. I’m so sorry for your loss @Scuzz (and your wife’s.)
One of the guys who works for me gets flare-ups and dear god they seem like just the worst thing ever. He drags himself to work when he can, but really can’t even limp around because it hurts too much.
Only problem is, now that you’ve brought gout into it, how are the rest of us supposed to complain about our other minor aging-related ailments? :slight_smile:
Foot/ankle gout is for noobs.
Try knees, elbows, and for a grand finale… your hand. My whole RIGHT hand swollen to the size of a grapefruit (I am right-handed).
My coming-home-to-Jesus experience was two years ago when it hit both knees and one foot all at once. Doc would not prescribe me prednisone over the phone to knock it out…he said he had to see me. I literally crawled to the car and my wife drove me down. He looks at me for 30 seconds and says “yep-prednisone”.
Now I’m on allopurinol, every day. Seems to have done the trick for over a year.
In any case, freezing the damn thing in the tub last night at least calmed it down enough for me to sleep. Yet another day of keeping an eye on slack without contributing much at work, though, which is getting real old.
@Matt_W man this thread is for complaining. There’s always something worse. Have at it ;)
First of all, condolences and well-wishes to the rest of you suffering.
This morning at 8:00 I woke up to severe and unrelenting pain in my lower back, left side. From much past experience, I immediately recognized it as a kidney stone. With the pain came a lot of sweat, and I wondered how long I could take it before going to the ER. Turns out I could take it for almost 4 hours. At that point, the pain gradually receded until I felt relatively normal, except for the exhaustion that followed. But I know it’s still there, and will give me many more attacks in the coming days/weeks/months until it either passes or I go the ER.
After the pain subsided, I was so relieved that I just lay in my recliner and enjoyed the sweet relief, temporary as it is.
Then I got to thinking: If I end up in the ER, I’ll probably be putting a strain on the already overworked hospital workers and doctors. So I’ll probably end up just suffering during my future attacks, and praying that the stone somehow passes on its own.
I’ve had 7 or 8 of these damn things since 1986. The easiest one I had was just last year, where the stone passed 24 hours after the pain started. It was a tiny stone. The hardest one I had was in the late 90’s, when it took 6 fucking months of agony before I relented and went to the ER. They took a Cat Scan, confirmed it was a very large one, and sent me home, telling me that it looked like it was ready to pass. And two days later, it passed. Well, half of it did. It was the size of a pencil eraser. The other half passed maybe two weeks later.
Anyway, I’m just venting. I’m comfortable at this moment, and enjoying every bit of it. But it’s hell knowing that there are more of these episodes to come. It’s a hell of a time to be dependent on a hospital. God help us all.
Have had gout for 40 years. Had 3 surgeries on feet/toes to remove crystals that were making walking every step painful for years.
Started taking Uloric 2 years ago. Within 2 weeks the crystals started dissolving as my uric acid level went below 6. Phew. No pain anymore, just the scars from the surgery and memories of years of flair ups.
Last November I began a bout of Prostatitis. Waited a month hoping it was just temporary but it did not. Took Cipro for 4 days, tendors sore, switched to Bactrim…nervous system issues…but stayed on it for 3 weeks…no more ache in the nether region…for 8 days. Then, ache started up again. 4 weeks later saw Urologist and decided to try Bactrim again. Been off and on that for a few months. Ache still there, from tailbone down to balls. Some days worse than others. Bought a standing desk at work but then stupid covid happened and now working from home with no standing desk. Ache all the time…now worried it’s something else or something worse but cant see a doc because of Covid.
