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Ouch,ouch and ouch again!!!

wow&flutter

wow&flutter

pfm Member
Just getting over a week of gout, this time it was a sore one. A really sore one!!
I had a pain in the top of my left foot last Monday which had a pulled muscle type sensation and this was about a week after my previous gout treatment had finished. This was not how it has started in previous attacks but the pain migrated to my big toe on my left foot the following morning along with the usual heat and with the feeling someone was trying to remove the toe with a crowbar!

This required a call to the Pharmacist with a ‘deliver the medication as I can’t stand up’ request which they were happy to do the following morning but thankfully a call to a neighbour who I was able to catch just as he was heading out with his dog meant I got the pills within the hour.

This is I think the third episode I’ve had courtesy of a specific blood pressure medication I’ve had an on/off relationship with over the last 30 years and not the result of excess unfortunately!

Hopefully I’ll get on to a long term preventative measure shortly, those who’ve had it will feel my pain!
 
I sympathise with you - it is very very painful. The pain is caused by needle sharp Uric Acid crystals are formed when there is too much uric acid in the blood. I've been there with gout in my right knee, the knee is the largest joint in the body so perhaps you can imagine what the pain could be like. I never want to be there again and thankfully I've not been since I had a full knee replacement in November 2006.

Hope you get it sorted soon.
 
I don’t touch booze or any of the regular triggers. There is an ongoing solution but I believe it can’t be prescribed during an attack.
The Colchicine that is prescribed for an attack usually knocks it on the head after seven days providing you don’t get an explosive dose of diarrhoea before then. I usually make it to day six!
 
wow&flutter said:
Just getting over a week of gout, this time it was a sore one. A really sore one!!
I had a pain in the top of my left foot last Monday which had a pulled muscle type sensation and this was about a week after my previous gout treatment had finished. This was not how it has started in previous attacks but the pain migrated to my big toe on my left foot the following morning along with the usual heat and with the feeling someone was trying to remove the toe with a crowbar!

This required a call to the Pharmacist with a ‘deliver the medication as I can’t stand up’ request which they were happy to do the following morning but thankfully a call to a neighbour who I was able to catch just as he was heading out with his dog meant I got the pills within the hour.

This is I think the third episode I’ve had courtesy of a specific blood pressure medication I’ve had an on/off relationship with over the last 30 years and not the result of excess unfortunately!

Hopefully I’ll get on to a long term preventative measure shortly, those who’ve had it will feel my pain!
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I don’t have gout but I do have very aggressive psoriatic arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis, so I can absolutely relate and sympathise with your pain. It’s almost impossible to describe it in words to someone who hasn’t experienced it, but a toe being removed with a crowbar is fairly accurate (for those that haven’t experienced it, yes really, that bad, sometimes worse). I liken it to the worst toothache imaginable, but hotter, angrier and over a larger area... it’s not always like that, but it’s fairly frequent... and it never doesn’t hurt, there’s always some level of pain, when my symptoms are lower, I might look happy and normal, because I am happy, and I am normal, for me anyway... but it still hurts like a bitch.

My biggest downfall is trying to do normal stuff that a fit and healthy young bloke should be able to do. I dug out a border earlier... yep, using a shovel, whilst on crutches (I can’t walk without them), then planted it out... shouldn’t have done that, but still do, otherwise stuff just wouldn’t get done and my vision would never be realised, which wouldn’t sit well with me on an emotional/mental health level, I feel like I’ve rammed the shovel through my feet and been hit in the back with a cricket bat, it hurts, lots... but the garden looks nice, so that’s a win!

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I’ve got a rear garden desperately needing grass and hedges cut but it’s not going to happen anytime soon. It was worth battling on today Linnfomaniac83 the garden looks great.

I also have arthritis in the spine, I’ve been fortunate it hasn’t really been an issue until recently but an unstable fracture of L1 30 years ago was always going to catch up on me.

Strangely, having a slightly tilted forward position on the motorbike gives me no back issues at all but minutes sitting upright in a bus and both my hands are painful, numb and stinging at the same time if that makes sense.

I guess I’m truly a product of my parents, my mother really struggled with her BP and cancer caught up with her at 55. Cancer I got through ok in my 30s but BP issues are ongoing and always will be I guess.

My father lasted till 92 but was riddled with arthritis from his 60’s, he to had a spinal injury mid life.

I doubt I’ll reach 92 though, not sure I want to anyway!
 
wow&flutter said:
I’ve got a rear garden desperately needing grass and hedges cut but it’s not going to happen anytime soon. It was worth battling on today Linnfomaniac83 the garden looks great.

I also have arthritis in the spine, I’ve been fortunate it hasn’t really been an issue until recently but an unstable fracture of L1 30 years ago was always going to catch up on me.

Strangely, having a slightly tilted forward position on the motorbike gives me no back issues at all but minutes sitting upright in a bus and both my hands are painful, numb and stinging at the same time if that makes sense.

I guess I’m truly a product of my parents, my mother really struggled with her BP and cancer caught up with her at 55. Cancer I got through ok in my 30s but BP issues are ongoing and always will be I guess.

My father lasted till 92 but was riddled with arthritis from his 60’s, he to had a spinal injury mid life.

I doubt I’ll reach 92 though, not sure I want to anyway!
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If you’re not too far from me (I’m between Walsall and Lichfield), I don’t mind popping round with my battery mower and knocking the grass down, can’t do hedges though, that would be physically impossible for me. My neighbour cuts what hedge I do have back (a once a year job with the type of hedge I have, which are laurels). It’s an ongoing thing gardening, I try and do a little bit every day, I enjoy it, it helps keep me fit and prevents me seizing up completely, and doing bits daily helps prevent it from being a big job. It’s digging, or the dreaded pressure washing/weed blasting that kills me, I always suffer big time after doing that, but I’m too proud to ask for help. I’m stupid because the upshot is that the bottom half of my legs are so swollen now that they actually shiny, and my knees are a grim red/purple colour!


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As well as my arthritis, I have colitis (related autoimmune condition) and asthma... but I’m actually quite physically fit, being a large-ish, crippled asthmatic, it might not sound like I am, but I do work hard to stay fit, I can swim 128 lengths (2 miles) of my local pool a day, followed by a half hour on a recumbent cross trainer or exercise bike... and then 20 minutes in a stream room. The right exercise helps keep my symptoms at bay and my cardiac health tip top. I am only 36 though.
 
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Thanks for the offer but I’m Scottish central belt. The garden will get done, even if it takes me a week to do it!

My brothers lower legs were like that with cellulitis, skin so tight it was shiny! He got a small cut on his foot once which resulted in an overnight in hospital on iv antibiotics.

I guess as we get older we hear about ailments unknown to us. I’m familiar with Colitis as well as a mate had it along with many other things inc diabetes.
 
wow&flutter said:
Thanks for the offer but I’m Scottish central belt. The garden will get done, even if it takes me a week to do it!

My brothers lower legs were like that with cellulitis, skin so tight it was shiny! He got a small cut on his foot once which resulted in an overnight in hospital on iv antibiotics.

I guess as we get older we hear about ailments unknown to us. I’m familiar with Colitis as well as a mate had it along with many other things inc diabetes.
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It takes a fair amount of inflammation to make your skin turn shiny like that, it’s not always like that, it’s my body kicking back at me for doing stuff beyond my capacity. I’ve seen cellulitis cause skin to stretch like that, never had it myself but my mother did after picking up an infection in a pool in Spain, she couldn’t bear for anything to touch her skin, thankfully my skin isn’t painful to the touch like that, it’s my joints that hurt... I don’t need to describe that to you, you know that pain, it’s why I’m still wide awake at 2.15AM.

Colitis is an inflammatory condition just as rheumatoid conditions are, and of course both are autoimmune conditions, so can and often do come together. It’s amazing how your own body can turn on itself. I was a picture of health until 6/7 years ago when my issues started to take hold.
 
My sympathies to you both and anyone who suffers with chronic pain. Ouch indeed. I've had nagging toothache for a few weeks in the past so can only imagine what it must be like to try and manage the pain on a more permanent basis.
 
My sympathies too. I'm fortunate that I've remained healthy, I had enough problems after the bike accident to know it's not nice sitting about, and I eventually got better. I do make as much of my life as I can as a result.

Good work on the garden Linnfo, I too try to do little and often in the garden, mostly because I dislike it. Half an hour a time is fine though and if you do it most days the place looks good.
 
I suffered gout attacks 3 or 4 times a year every year for about 10 years. Enough was enough, since taking a single tablet of allopurinol 6 days a week I have been clear of it for 4 years now.
 
I’ve just been prescribed allopurinol, in fact I have the tablets in front of me. But I believe they’ve not to be taken till I’m clear of symptoms.
 
My late father suffered dreadfully with gout, and zyloric/allopurinol kept it at bay very effectively.
 
wow&flutter said:
I’ve just been prescribed allopurinol, in fact I have the tablets in front of me. But I believe they’ve not to be taken till I’m clear of symptoms.
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Thats correct. Can exacerbate an acute attack.
see if you doctor will allow you to keep some colchicine to hand for any future episode.
An NSAID like ibuprofen , naproxen or diclofenac will also help with pain.
John
 
Thanks, rather than the usual seven day Colchicine prescription for an acute attack she gave me one hundred tablets this time plus the allopurinol. I’ll chat with the pharmacist tomorrow when I’m collecting other bits and pieces.

I was a long term Diclofenac user but I think one of my kidney tests gave some concern so I was taken off it. Shame, as it worked well with no side effects.
 
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