When is a gout attack actually over?

[wikkydoo .]

I have had a few attacks over the years, usually somewhere in my foot and most of the time I don’t take anything or I take one colcichine and an indomethacin and I’m good a day later. But this week it hit my knee. I took two colcichines in an hour and then the pain went away, but my knee had swollen to the size of a softball. It was unusual because the swelling was mostly on top of my kneecap whereas the gout “pain” was only felt on the outside of my kneecap.

Anyway I had very little mobility the first two days, it was hard to put weight on or bend, and today is better but it’s still quite swollen. Really only hurts when I bend it, otherwise in the resting phase it’s a non-issue.

My question is whether or not the “attack” is over once the pain subsides, or once the swelling subsides? Seems to me once the pain is gone then the crystal production has stopped, and the swelling is just an inflammation response that requires time to recuperate. But I’m not entirely sure. Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

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Gouty swelling in foot even after gout pain has gone

[nobody]

Hi!
The longer you allow your gout to worsen, the harder it will become to tell when attacks stop or indeed whether any problem you are experiencing is due to gout or not.
The textbook attack features 3 main diagnostic signs: severe pain, redness and swelling. There’s also the matter of how the swelling feels when you touch it. But of course an attack deep in the knee joint isn’t as likely to cause a reddening of the skin as a toe joint attack. Likewise, a knee swelling isn’t going to feel like a toe swelling.
Painless swelling could potentially be due to an ongoing attack but it could also be the after-effect of an attack (your “response that requires time to recuperate”), the effect of damage done by an attack (I had a knee which hurt for the longest time after an attack when I performed certain tasks for instance) or even something else entirely. It’s hard enough to tell what’s going on when it’s your own knee so guessing over the Internet…

Crystal production doesn’t stop after an attack (not typically anyway).

[Author]

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