My confusing gout journey
Hi folks, hoping you can share your thoughts on my experience.
I was diagnosed with gout about a month ago after being misdiagnosed for a year with a sports injury (I’m a rock climber and do HIIT).
The main symptom is persistent pain in the big toe. It has been a mild pain for the whole time - like a 5/10 on the pain scale - but it’s never been a flareup. My new podiatrist ran a uric acid test and it came back 8.2. She also did an x-ray and MRI scan of the big toe and saw some reduced cartilage in the joint. She was certain it was gout even though I’ve never had a flareup.
In this forum I seem to only see posts about people having flareups. Is it possible to have gout with no flares? This doctor seems to think so. She also says I will need to be on gout medication for the rest of my life, which feels extreme to me if I’ve never had a flareup. I have booked a separate appointment with a rheumatologist for a long-term plan, but in the meantime wanted to see if anyone else can relate.