Gout Flare-Up Almost Fortnightly

[Rheinhold Koner]

I was first diagnosed with gout when I was 24, now 27. After my first attack, I didn’t have another flare until March this year and now seem to have a flare up every 2-4 weeks.

After my first flare up, I made significant diet changes, turning to a mostly plant based diet and nearly eliminating takeaways. I have a sweet tooth so had to lower my sugar intake. I believed I was managing my gout well until March. As we locked down I was working a lot so completely ditched alcohol for the month, my diet was the same as it has been but near the end of March I was hit with a flare in my big toe. I thought at first maybe it was stress related, with the goings on around the world and working a lot and put it it down to this after this flare. However,as previously mentioned, this hasn’t ever really cleared up. Mostly in my big toe but I also had a flare and pretty significant swelling in my ankle (both right) for the first time.

I’m waiting to hear from a rheumatologist but with the waiting lists and the NHS probably just getting back up to speed after lockdown I’m feeling a bit helpless and it’s really starting to make me peeved (polite way of putting it). I’m hoping Allopurinol will be the answer.

So, after that long-winded intro – has anyone else experienced recurring flare-ups so closely together? What helped, if so?

Thanks

[nobody]

Hi!
Yes, recurring flare-ups seem pretty common. What definitely helps is patience and lowering the amount of uric acid in your system. What might help in the meantime is a combination of largish amounts of colchicine and anti-inflammatories (or possibly less common drugs which are known to stop attacks). What certainly doesn’t help is neglecting this disease whenever symptoms go away.
You’re reading too much into the timing of your attacks. Gout is a slow disease and you can’t know exactly what caused a particular attack or tell if you’re managing the disease by the symptoms (or lack thereof). For the same reason, allopurinol takes a while to work so you would do best to learn how to manage attacks because you’ll probably still have a use for that skill after you start allopurinol.

[Author]

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