r/gout

I’m 39 and had my first gout attack about two months ago. It came out of nowhere and got bad enough that I basically couldn’t walk. Thankfully, after about three days it improved a lot.

I’ve been on medication for the past two months, and I went back to my doctor today for another blood test to see where my uric acid is and whether I still need to stay on the medication.

One thing I’m still trying to figure out is alcohol.

I already knew beer was something I should avoid, so I haven’t really been drinking beer. But over the past two months I’ve had a small amount of red wine here and there — usually just a glass — and so far I haven’t noticed any problems or another flare.

I asked my doctor about it today and his advice was pretty simple: avoid alcohol altogether, including wine.

Obviously I’m going to take my doctor’s advice seriously, but I’m curious what people who have actually lived with gout for years do in real life.

Did you completely stop drinking after your first attack? Or once your uric acid was under control, were you able to occasionally have a glass of wine without triggering a flare?

And for those who still drink occasionally, have you noticed a big difference between beer, wine, and liquor?

Still very new to all of this, so I’d love to hear what has actually worked for you long term.

For those who take allopurinol, do you continue/start taking it when you have an active gout flare, or do you wait until the flare is over?
Curious what your doctor recommended and what your experience has been.

What have other people been prescribed for dosage? I was told to take 60mg/day for five days but that sounds like a lot.

I feel like Im being teased sometimes as a threat. I take allo 300mg daily for the last 2 years and never had a gout flare since (fingers crossed) but sometimes my gout affected joint(big toe) likes to twinge sometimes to remind me that it's still there and waiting to give me a week-long gout flare.

Just curious if this is normal or should I up my dose again?

My meds say take with or just after food with a full glass of water.

I want to start doing 48-72h water fasts once or twice a month, has anyone else done this or taken the meds without food?

Gout is really impacting my quality of life, it’s been two weeks and my flare up has actually gotten worse.

Mid 30s, been working out and eating right consistently since high school. I also stopped drinking after I knew I had gout a few years ago. Been on allo for over a year after having a bad flare and have had no issues until about two weeks ago. It started with minor tingling that came and went but last night it got really painful and went to urgent care.

The nurse there that took my vitals kept trying to convince me that it’s probably not gout because I was so young and fit which kind of made me more pissed off about my condition. I live a healthy life style, eat right, exercise consistently and take my meds yet I keep getting punished for existing while some people treat their bodies like shit and are perfectly fine.

Urgent care is useless and just gave me was some indomethacin and sent me on my way. I got an appointment with my primary care but will need a referral for a specialist.

The worst part is that I can’t play with my kid, or help around the house. The physical pain and frustration with the situation is putting me in a terrible mood and head space. I am not the person I usually am or want to be.

I control my gout with diet, no processed foods, red meat only once or twice a week and rarely ever have flare ups. I had a decent flare up recently (got a little sloppy and ate too many fast food breakfast sandwiches) but it cleared up in a few days with colchicine. Then on Friday I had beers with friends at lunch and bar hopped on Saturday. Woke up Sunday with it raging again. Alcohol has never been a trigger for me…does that mean it is now? Or was I just too close to a flare up to drink beer? Just looking for opinions.

I thought I had my gout under control … I was hit this morning with a HUGE gout flare. Pain is 11/11 , swelling , can’t walk at all , bed ridden. I want to cry for how much pain I’m in.

I did an emergency dr visit , it was télé médecine, he pretty much said it got but couldn’t diagnose because he needs blood work and physical.

He prescribed me colchicine 1st day 2 pills then 1 pill a day for 6days. It’s 0.6 dose

My question is how fast will it help? I am at the apex of the flare and I can’t sleep or rest or work.

I’m 36M , a little overweight , bad eating habits and I drink too much. This is the final straw I’m getting sober and getting my lifestyle back together.

Sorry for the rant but these flares make me have a come to Jesus .. I talk to family about it but they never had it they think I’m being a pussy.

Anyways send me love xxxx

I’ve other concerns regarding this tomfoolery (cliff notes: rheumatoid doc took blood and tons of x-rays from my affected joints- and toes, ankles, wrists, shoulders).

He said the lump on my toe is a bunion. I saw the podiatrist about my bunion. The podiatrist said this lump is gout and a bunion. He was running the ultrasound and pointed out the lumps when he said this.

I’m sorry for the mistakes - I’m super tired. Anyway- show off your gout!!

Edit: after looking at the pictures here of your gout, my gout doesn’t look the same. My uric acid was 4.6 (I forget the unit).

First flare of my life two weeks ago exactly. felt like a broken toe, got an x-ray, confirmed it was likely gout. pain increased to agonising levels for about two/three days. got colchicine from the doc, took that over three/four days. it's been a week since finishing the colch and two weeks since the pain and stiffness started. I still can't walk flat footed without significant pain (not agony but not... manageable) and I definitely could not return to sports.

I have a blood test in about two weeks but apart from that I want to get on with things. how long should I be waiting for this to last? I guess I can go back to the GP and ask for other stuff?

(hated colch btw. probably was given it too late to make a big difference and I'll take it again if I have to but... egh)

47 M here. Had my first gout attack 4 months ago on my big toe. Went to urgent care they prescribed me a pain killer and next day it was all gone. Blood test came out at 8.5. Last week I started experiencing a second flare on top of my feet went to my primary care physician who prescribed me Colchicine without even giving proper instructions on how to use it. Took some pain killers and steroids and now it pretty much all gone. Blood test came back at 9.3. She told me about better diet avoid beer etc.. and to contact them back if there is an other flare for long term medicine/allopurinol. She doesnt seems to have a sense of urgency but those levels seems high and I'm thinking of going to see a rheumatologist or am I over reacting?. TIA for your input!.

Hit with gout 3 weeks ago. Im 33 male, I woke up after a workout and my toe was killing me. Shrugged it off and told myself to stop being a little pansy. I didn't know what gout was. I normally put in 20k steps a day not even thinking as I hate sitting down. I pushed through for 2 days as the pain doubled.

I woke up on night 2 and couldn't even get out of bed. When I finally did, I had to drag myself down the hall to the kitchen for ibuprofen. It did absolutely nothing as I laid on the couch staring at the ceiling for 5 agonizing hours. On day three it was way better and I could hobble around for 2 days. I thought i was clear so was back to being active eating my normal diet, drinking some beers after work.

On the night of day 6 it was so bad my entire leg was red and swollen up to my shin. Had to go to the ER got some Colchicine and some Oxy. Sailed through for 4 days with the help of the Oxys. The Colchicine helped, but I still could barely walk.

I ran out of Oxys and things were decent; I could hobble around for 10-13k steps a day. I did have a conference in Vegas for 3 days where I ate like garbage and pounded beer for 3 days straight. When I got back home 2 days later, I was bedridden again, obviously my fault. For the next week I took my diet super seriously: no red meat , no beer, 1.5 gallons of water a day and a ton of kiwi and things got much better.

At this point I'm 3-plus weeks in and still hobbling around. I made a doc appointment, and she spent 6 minutes with me. Gave me Prednisone, popped them 6 hours ago and im back baby. Thinking about going for a run tonight haha.

In conclusion, gout is not to be messed with; hands down, the worst pain of my life! Prednisone has worked the best for sure not even close.

Not that I’m constantly surfing this sub, but I feel like I don’t see it discussed here enough. I’ve had three flareups in my life (all inner ankle) and indomethacin is like pure magic for me. Within 30 minutes my ankle is completely back to normal. The effects last for several hours for me as well, like 5-6+.

Maybe I’m lucky but in the three flare ups I’ve had, four or five rounds of indomethacin and a lot of water and I’ve been good to go after that.

Does it work this well for anyone else?

Hello fellow Gentlegouts.

I rarely get gout flare out.. Maybe once per 2 years.

I've recently had a gout flare up and it's been a couple of months now. I got myself some Prednisone and it was almost gone and then It came back

It seems that the only change in diet was that I switched from coke/Pepsi to Minute Maid Lemonade.. I noticed that it started getting pain around the time I switched as it was free at work.

Every time Im away from work, it seems like it gets better and then the pain comes back when I start drinking the minute maid lemonade again.

Now, I got some prednisone and the pain was almost gone and I quit my work.. but since i still have some lemonade in the house I drank some more and now it's back again.

I just wanted to see if anyone had similar experience with Minute Maid Lemonade and sort of confirm my theory of another item to avoid.

Thank you in advance ..

I recently increased allopurinol from 100mg to 200mg and feeling tired all the time even though I am getting decent sleep. my levels were 552 and went to 380 since the dose changed. I do feel stiffness in fingers and elbow here and there. I am assuming that's due to tophi dissolving? The doctor says to lower back to 100 and wait a few weeks and run tests to recheck the levels.

Have any of you experienced the lethargic side effects?

I've been on it for 5 years, but I've been around people who don't bother, they endure the pain and treat it with Ibuprofen or cherry supplements. I'm guessing financial reasons?

I see a lot of debate in this group about alloplurinol and thought I'd share my story.

I'm 62. Two years ago, I was running marathons and playing basketball. I woke up one morning and had a sharp pain in the joint of my right big toe. I attributed it to too much running. I also noticed that when I sit and work, I tend to tuck my foot under my chair with my big toes bent. My doctor suggested that it might be turf toe and prescribed rest, elevation, and ice. It didn't go away, and the pain spread to other parts of my foot and to the other foot. I have a very high pain tolerance level, but some days, I literally could not put any weight on my feet.

Thanks to this group, I started suspecting gout. I asked my doctor about it. He said it did sound like gout, but wouldn't give me anything preventative until he got lab results. Unfortunately, I was away from my home town for a couple of months and kept putting off the lab work until I got back home. I had a couple of really bad flares during that time. My doctor did send a 6-day prednisone treatment a couple of times which reduced the flare, but they always came back within a couple of days of finishing the treatments.

When I got back about a month ago, I had the lab work done, and my uric acid level was about a 9. The doctor immediately prescribed allo. The effects weren't immediate. However, after about a week, the pain, redness, and swelling all went away. My feet actually looked normal for the first time in a LONG time! Yesterday, the doorbell rang, and I was in another part of the house, so I ran to the front door to answer it. I realized that it was the first time I ran without pain in over a year.

To me, this is a miracle drug and I will continue to take it the rest of my life with no hesitation. I've seen several posts on here from people worried about the effects of allo and avoiding it because they don't want to be dependent on a daily pill the rest of their life. For me, the quality of life this drug has restored for me is worth any concerns. Thank you to everyone on here who helped me through the frustrating process of figuring out this painful condition, and who gave me the advice to not stop trying to find relief. If you're on the fence on the decision of whether to try allo or not, do it. Your body and your family will thank you!

Tenho 32 anos e desde mais jovem meu acido urico nao regulava, comecei a sentir crise esse ano, sinrmto muita dor. Tem dias que nao consigo pisar no chao, era um cara ativo, praticava corrida e boxe mas nao consigo mais e estou engordando. Nao aguento mais sentir dor, vai ser assim pra sempre? O que fazer? Qual remedio tomar?

I’m curious if anyone has had side effects taking either meds. I’m looking for long term treatment options but google claims Allo is best for long term yet can trigger gout flare ups at first. Last thing I want is another flare up so I’m in need of advice thanks.

28 year old Male - My great grandfather on my
Mothers side had Gout

1. Woke up a couple weeks ago with strange pain in my left big toe and had no clue what it was. I did my day as normal and said eh, it’ll be gone by tomorrow when I wake up. Sadly, I barely slept through the night and woke up at 6am with throbbing pain in my left big toe and said yup, I need to go to urgent care and get this checked out.

2. diagnosed with gout, they gave me Colchicine and Prednisone for a 5 day period. Once I was done taking both medications I thought alright well it is gone. Had a few alcoholic beverages Friday night and it started all over again LOL as the urgent care did not stress anything to me to be aware of moving forward.

3. The next week I called a bunch of rheumatologist and got an appointment. The doctor prescribes me Methylprednisolone at 16 MG for a 10 day period follow by Allopurinol. I take it for 10 days and the attack goes away and I started Allopurinol two days ago.

4. This morning I woke up in horrible pain as I felt an attack coming on and I called my doctor and he prescribed Methylprednisolone 16 MG for another 10 days and just said “yeah an acute flair can happen as you take the Allopurinol”

Questions / Concerns below

1. Taking a steroid such as Methylprednisolone, shouldn’t that be tapered off instead of hard stopping at 16 MG after 10 days? Because from what I read, long use of steroids is extremely unhealthy for the body.

2. If you experienced gout in your big toe and were required to go into an office environment for work. How did you handle the days you were required to go into the office if you had an attack and couldn’t walk? as the doctor that was taking care of me refused to fill out an accommodation form for my company.

3. Do Cherry based tablets really actually help with future gout attacks as I have read about it.