Johnson Gout Diary

[Johnson]

Hi all. First off, thank you Keith for your help and generosity and all the great work you do.

I guess you could call me a ‘gout recce’ at this point.

Here is my story.

I’m a 43 year old man, and I’ve been experiencing gout symptoms for about 10 years.

I went to see a specialist only once who prescribed allopurinol. I ended up not taking it, believing my gout wasn’t bad enough and overall believe in trying to simply live a healthy lifestyle. I bought a home UA kit.

I was semi-serious about it… I was starting to watch my diet and I had been gout free for periods of 6-12 months.

But then I got lax about it…and over the last 4 years or so, the gout attacks kept occuring, but I basically ignored them.

I have been treating the attacks with indomethicin, ibuprofen, and natural remedies. It was never “bad enough” for me to take it “seriously”.

But that is changing.

Over the last few years, some ‘nice’ tophi have been growing on my big toes…and getting bigger.

Occassionally, I would get pain in the ankles, rarely the knee.

And in the past several months I could feel pains in my fingers which I can only assume is the gout as well.

This week was the straw that broke the camel’s back — my right elbow swelled up like a baloon… no pain, but I’m pretty sure it’s a reaction to some crystalization in the elblow joint.

Very freaky looking.

This was a huge wakeup call.

I’m finally serious about getting my gout under control.

As an “all or nothing” kinda guy, I embarked on a 30 day juice fast to start healing my body. I also overweight and figured this will do me a double dose of good.

(I’m on day 5 right now)

I made an appointment with a doctor but they can’t see me for several weeks.

In the meantime, I bought an elbow compression sleeve to help the extra fluid in the elbow get absorbed back into the body (and it seems to be helping).

I also just ordered a home UA kit (the other one was long ago lost).

I have a prescription for allupurinol from an online prescription writing service, but I am thinking to first do the juice fast, measure my levels, and go from there.

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When will you start your Personal Gout Diary?

[Keith Taylor]

Thank you very much for your gout diary request. Because of time constraints, I haven’t pushed this service as much as I might. But, I feel every gout sufferer should keep a diary like this. Even if they want to create it privately. You are very brave to do this in public. Other gout sufferers will learn from your diary. You’re paying back before you even started! What a great thing to do.

Before I explain my gout diary service, I should say that, from your description, you are at a similar stage to me, several years ago. I understand every word you wrote at a personal level. Now’s a great time to take control. And, I believe a gout diary is a great starting point.

How you use it is up to you. I’ll explain that shortly. But first, I should explain the context from my point of view. When we are learning to control gout, there is lots of information. Some of that is personal. Some is general information about gout. Many gout sufferers have important experiences and opinions that determine how they want to approach gout management.

Ideally, you read lots of information. And, you start discussions about aspects of gout that interest you. You also join in topics started by other gout sufferers. That’s a lot of information, so your gout diary is where you summarize what is important to you. It should contain:
– Personal facts
– Gout symptoms
– Gout medications
– Test results
– Important unresolved questions
– Important opinions about gout treatment
– Important gout experiences

It’s a reference section for Johnson’s gout. You use it to track your gout recovery. I use it to focus my responses to you in a way that minimizes irrelevant details.

Your Gout Diary
I will help you as much as you want. I want your gout diary to be meaningful and helpful to you. My style might not be what you want. So, you are free to maintain your diary as you think fit. I will help whenever you ask.

If you don’t know where to start, just tell me. I’ll ask some questions, and summarize the answers in your name. You can edit that whenever you like.

If you have no experience of editing, I can do it for you, or teach you. That will make more sense once you make a start.

You can start posting in your gout diary now. Or ask for help making a start.

[Author]

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