another youngster (36)

[upriver]

Hello-

Just a friendly introduction from another younger person (amazed at how common this seems though).

Broke my toe as a teenager so the occasional joint pain didn't concern me, until the day it turned bright red and I couldn't walk for 3 days.  Self-diagnosed it for gout (no insurance), cleaned up my diet, it went away and I forgot about it for 2 years. 

Its back.  This time I have insurance, so I went in for testing and my uric acid is 7.8

I'm taking it pretty seriously.  This site has been very informative and a nice alternative to the contradictory and remedy-rich scammy looking stuff out there.

I'm going to take GoutPal's advice and focus on lowering my numbers.  I am already mostly vegan (I have my own chickens and eat their eggs rarely and occasionally have some goat cheese), eat a variety of almost all organic vegetables.  My doctor agreed there is not much room to clean up my diet.  However, I do like beer and that, along with having a newborn child and being less active as a result, has had me put on about 25 pounds over the past year. 

I'm off beer for now…  this is hard as an avid homebrewer.  I hope to reach a point where I can have an occasional bottle (2 pints every other weekend would be fine with me) again, but in the meantime its easier for me to go cold turkey than to cut back.  I will also improve intentional excercise.  I'm including more anti-oxidant rich foods and lowering the huge ammounts of homemade bread I enjoy. 

I have also decided to start alluprinol today.  I have colchicin on hand just in case but will resist it as much as possible as I am extremely nausea-prone from medications and the side effects sound terrible.

I've always wondered what pharmacists think about their patients, and assumed they were not supposed  to really ever comment, but as I was called up, she said to me “you are awfully young for gout!”.  It didn't really offend me, but as I left later I was wondering if thats not fairly uncouth.

As a bit of a geek, I find the home monitor very appealing and I would love to stay on top of my numbers.  I am not sure how well my insurance is going to cover frequent lab tests.  I am also a bit dismayed by how finicky the home units seem to be.  I realize that they are useful if careful (which I believe I can be) and to monitor trends.  Still on the fence about buying one though.  Seems like the kind of thing a hospital should let you rent, but don't get me started on American health care.

Anyhow, I will probably have lots of questions over time and I want to thank all of you for the contributions you've already made here which over the past few days have really helped me chart a path through all of this.

[vegetarianGuy]

Welcome to Gout paradise I am 36 too. Have been vegetarian for almost a decade and almost never drank alcohol in those years. I am in top physical condition but still got hit by Gout thanks to hereditary reasons. Life can be so unfair!

Btw the SUA measuring kit works quiet well once you get the hang of it (the one from UK atleast).

[zip2play]

Believe me, after a point, being called too young for ANYTHING is to be taken with untrammeled GLEE!

Pssst, just between us…if you are on alllopurinol you can sneak in several pints a week. That's why we love it.

[upriver]

Thanks for the welcome.  As for the pints with allopurinol:  my reasons for taking a break are more for overall health than they are gout-specific.  I'm fairly sure my beer habit (usually not excessive, but pretty mandatory most any evening after hard work which is nearly every day 🙂  ) is why my weight has crept up, I have slightly high blood pressure and triglycerides, etc. I am sure that once I have improved my health and regained some perspective, I'll be alongside one of you at the pub eventually.

[NateA]

Welcome to the forum!  I'll be 36 in two weeks.

The three worst places (in my opinion, of course) you could live and not be able to drink beer: 

Belgium

Oregon, USA

Germany

I'm from Oregon and living in Germany now.  Over the past six months, I've really altered my diet and stopped drinking alcohol all together.  It has made a world of difference.  I just wish I was able to exercise a bit more.  I just have to keep telling myself to be patient, it will take time.  After 15 years of living with this disease, I'm just happy right now that I haven't had any severe attacks in about 3 months.  Sure, a couple of smaller ones here and there, but none of the 'can't walk keep-me-in-bed' types of attacks. 

I'm so happy I found this site when I did.  I was at the end of my rope when I stumbled upon GoutPal.  I'm slowly getting better thanks to the advice and knowledge I've gained from this site.   

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