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I had my first attack back in Aug of 2010. At that time I just lost 15 punds and was working in the heat all day. I think my gout was from being dehydrated, streesed and a lot of beer drinking. I went to the doctor and after the first 4 days of wanting to DIE or cut my foot off it seemed to subside. I ended up taking colchicine 3 times a day to manage the pain. The major attack was gone but my left tow was always swelled up and sore on the side. Some days were worse than others.
I am in the National Guard so i needed to be able to run for a PT test. I begged my doctor for something to ease the pain of running and he gave me Prednosine for a week. That was great but I guess you cant stay on that forever. Finally the pain was low enough to start Allpurinal.
I started that at the end of Nov and by the end of Dec I was able to stop taking the Colchicne. I still had pain in my toe and swelling but I was able to live with it. Well, about three weeks ago I got really sick, sinus pain was unbearable so I was taking 400 MG ibuprophen every 4 hours. At 4 days later I had so much pain in my back and head I went to urgent care. The doctors ran some test and said I had an ulcer but when the ran my blood my Pancrease and liver numbers were bad.
The next day I went to another doctor (mine was not available) he said the numbers are high because of the Allpurinal and told me to stop taking it. I told him about my gout and he said maybe I could try Uloric, but I need to stay off the allpurinal for a week and get another test, plus an ultrasound on my Liver, gall bladder and pancreas.A week later my nmbers were down by he thinks I have a fatty liver.. I am not huge but could loose a couple pounds. I lift a couple times a week so at 220 my only fat part is my love handles..LOL..
Last week Friday my gout started to flare up again… I cut out beer, red meat, and fried foods for the last 3 weeks. I was PISSED… I started searching everywhere, I tried cherries..NO…Baking soda…NO…nothing would ease the pain. Monday I worked out and that night I woke up in a horrible pool of sweat with my foot throbbing..
. Tuesday night I was reading about liver function and caffine intake..?
Well all this time I had been drinking 6-8 cups of coffee everyday, have been for years. So, Wed I only drank 1 cup in the morning. Thur (1 cup) my foot felt a little better but I was complete A** everyone…withdrawls…Fri 1 cup and my foot felt better than in had in months. I also bought some distilled water and started to drink only that. Today I feel my foot is not back to normal but its not on my mind 24/7 and my shoes fit better since yesterday.
I feel, after reading everything I could for months and trying everything I could. I think my liver was not able to process the uric acid because I was in a constant state of dehydration with all the caffine intake. Even though I still drank plenty of water it was always tap water or bottle which is full of chlorine. I hardly drank soda or anything else. I like my beer and its obvious that quitting that was not the answer (for me).
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I had my ultrasound yesterday and the Doc left a msg that no emergencys, but he wants to talk. Pretty sure he will tell me to loose weight which is fine.
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I think to much Coffee was the culprit..
Hey, I've always said everything (even good things) over indulged can't be good for us.? You were drinking a ton of coffee, so glad this helped you out.
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The ONLY thing I don't get and wanted to point out to you…since Allopurinol is metabolized in the Kidney's, and NOT THE LIVER, not sure HOW Allopurinol can be blaimed for Liver issues ?? Uloric is metabolized in the Liver, so when I was on Uloric my liver functions were slightly abnormal…but it was because of the Uloric.? When I changed to Allopurinol, my liver functions returned to normal.
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I did not change anything else in my diet (I am careful across the board though) so for me I gotta believe your Allopurinol had nothing to do with your liver issues…
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However, as always, I am no doctor and this is purely my opinion…but curious what others may think and feel about this ???? My doctor (the one who forced Uloric on me) had a HUGE opinion that Allopurinol is bad for the Kidneys and Uloric is much better because it works in the liver, something I never really understood in all honesty.
Toofast,
That is a great question and honestly I have no idea? The doctor #2 that gave me the ultrasound called today and they want me to get more blood work done to rule out Hepatitis or some other things. They also told me to continue not to use Allpurinal and don't take Choclacine either. I asked the nurse if doctor #2 ever talked to doctor #1 about what was going on..Of course they did not…then I said “this is the third time I have had to give blood why dont you just run test on everything?” of course no answer..So I did call my doctor #1 this morning “the original one that put me on the allpurinal” and asked what I should do. They said dont take anymore meds and get the blood done we will talk when the results come in.?
So, I will ask these questions about coffee, liver, kidneys and all that stuff next appointment. I will say though that my foot feels great today and I was on them for 10 hours. Plus I noticed a couple little patches of psoriasis that are starting to clear up? Good thing cause I have a PT test for the Air National Guard in the morning and need to be able to run. Who knows….
Well, whatever you do, don't lose faith.? It took me 3 doctor changes, actually 6 if you include all the way back.
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I went 8 YEARS before someone realized what was going on…so the hard part is done for you hopefully.? Getting the meds right will take a bit of patience and DONT be afraid to ask a ton of questions…if the docs get bothered by your questions, take your charts and test results and go find another doctor.
Well doctor #2 came back with more of my blood work and all my numbers are normal now. Kidney, Liver, gall bladder..Normal.. what they did not do is check my uric acid again? Stinking doctors…anyway he told me not to take the allpurinal anymore and quite possibly the pain in my foot (which I dont have much of anymore) is caused by Osteoarthritis? I really dont know what to think. All I can do is continue to suck down a gallon of water a day, drink less coffee and only drink a couple beers a week.
Well I still think you have a doctor that got his degree from a cracker jack box…no offense.
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If they thought you needed Allopurinol because of high Uric Acid…then they told you to stop and never did a Uric Acid test again ?
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You are just asking for trouble.? Demand a Uric Acid Blood test or don't pay the bills.
Well, my doctor recommended me to a Rheumatoid specialist. I saw the specialist yesterday and he is convinced I have psoriatic arthritis. He does not think I had a gout attack since they never drew fluid and confirmed it. He said a sudden arthritis attack can be just as painful and with the other symptoms I have it more likely the psoriasis. Makes sense to me since the pain lingered for so long and non of the normal gout relieving things seemed to work. I think the less coffee was just a coincidence. So he put me on Ketoprofen so I guess we will see.
Well, I still don't see your Uric Acid levels, so I guess we can never be sure.
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Not drawing the joint fluid does not mean you don't have gout.? Just not sure why a simple little test result is not shared with you…as I said I would demand it.
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If you had a reaction to Allopurinol, that explains the rash…
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My gout pain lingered with weeks and weeks and months, before I got my uric acid levels straightened out…
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anyways, best of luck and keep us informed.
Thanks Toofast. I will update as time goes by. My Uric acid levels did come down over time but they were down when I was still having pain. I think it was 9.6 at the highest and the last was 7.2? or there abouts.? He aslo said “which I have read” that sometimes a uric acid level can be deceiving cause people can have high uric acid and not have an attack.
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Anyway thanks again
Best of luck again…keep in mind at 7.2 you are still in the danger range for attacks…
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I hope you get everything straigthened out, and I don't mean to be negative, but I think I am jaded as I just spend about $10K with a doctor (rheumatogolical specialist) who INSISTED I had RA and NOT GOUT, and he was so very wrong.?
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I know not all doctors are evil…but just make sure you get all the facts.
Hi Reismann- I've seen your post tick along [being a low coffe taker]?and just thought I'd add my usual caveat that there's no reason why you can't have both RA and Gout.
If your bloods are steady now why not get on a Uriscoric like Probenecid to see if the bad attacks go- and just long term symptoms remain?
A low dose lcould well bring you below the reqd 6mg/dl , which is where you need to be to have any hope of nailing it.
I don't think you would normally be put on AP without a firm diagnosos initially,?so there?are still strands to be combed out- before you can be sure. A lot of gout management seems to be hit and miss in the early stages.
Thanks for the advice guys. The doc said if I have an attack get in to him ASAP so he can draw fluid and see. I guess thats all I can do for now. Hopefully I dont have one…All I know is the initial attack was the wost pain I ever had….The Ketoprofen so far has helped the swelling in my foot and hand. My shoes fit better and my hand is not sore anymore.
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