Post your “first attack” stories

[cjeezy]

Zip2play had a response to another thread that made me think we should start a thread where people can post their ?first major attack stories.? Zip, hope you don?t mind, but I?ve copied yours below since you?ve seen the longest period of success managing gout out of anyone on this board (I?ll post mine in another thread).

Well it started at 5 AM, a very common time. I found I could barely step on my foot to go to the bathroom (almost ?en suite.?) Since this was similar to about 4 earlier attacks, I figured 3 day of pain and I dug out the crutches. For the earlier atttacks in my instep and ankle I had not yet made the gout connection?young and stupid but also not in the most common joint.
As the first and second days progressed it was clear that nothing could be put on my right foot and swinging the foot with crutches was too painful so I took to my bed the second day (if memory serves.) I took everything in the medicine chest including ibuprofen, acetomenophen with codeine, aspirin (later fouind to be a big no-no,) phenobarbitol, librium. Nothing worked. I could not bear anything but the lightest sheet covering my foot and just changing position was horrible. To go to the bathroom I had to crawl on my hands and knees, keeping my right foot elevated behing me, VERY careful not to bump it. That was so difficult that I switched to a hospital style pee bottle?and tried to hold the rest in until I HAD to make the hallway crawl.
My right bunion joint was purple and the front half of my foot badly swollen with the skin so stretched it looked like it might burst.
My bed partner became an ancient 1400 page volume of the PRINCIPLES OF INTERNAL MEDICINE with a good long chapter on gout (Al Gore hadn?t invented the internet yet.) I diagnosed myself with gout. THe book talked about the HUGE excretion of urate with 6 grams of aspirin daily (like 19 a day) for a week. I made it 2 days before my stomach told me NO MORE ASPIRIN!
But I also found the OTHER cure, colchicine, 2 to start and one an hour til pain relief or severe diiarrhea. So I called my doctor and TOLD him I wanted him to call in an Rx for 60 colchicine. Friend went for the Rx and the next morning I started before dawn. I took a total of 22 pillls on day 9 (no mention the daily UPPER limit is 16.)

At pill 22, all Hell broke loose and I sat and shat for 45 minutes nonstop/ I would drink a large glass of water (I knew to avoid dehydration) and it would immedicately spill though within a minute?I worried whether I was going to find my eyeballs in the toilet. At the end of the 45 minutes the pain in my foot was gone?a couple hours later all signs of swelling were gone and I arose, Lazarus-like and went for a walk?the first time out of the house in 9 days. That week I went to the doctor and got an Rx for 400 mg. allopurinol per day, a year later I dropped it to 300 and have not had an attack in the last 24 years. When I tried 200 mg + lasix + losartan for a few months, I started getting some little twinges and ran a 6.7 SUA?quickly went back to 300 mg.

I have NO dietary restraints and like meat, even liver, shellfish, and wine and beer (perhaps TOO much.)

CAUTION: Do NOT take 22 colchicine. I?m 6? 2 inches and over 200 pounds so MAYBE for me it wasn?t QUITE an overdose.

[cjeezy]

Here is my story;

I took a vacation in August for a week (during this time I was on an antibiotic). For 2 days I drank beer and painted a house in the hot sun. Over the course of my trip I also ate sushi and all kinds of seafood. I returned home on a Friday and everything was fine. Saturday night I woke up at 3am with so much pain my sheets hurt touching my right bunion area. I took a couple ibuprofin and tried falling asleep to no avail. I got up and literally hobbled to church. When I left I had a flight to catch for work, so I drove 1 hr to the airport and continued my hobble to the plane (that was a long effin walk thru the concourse!!). At this point the pain was intensifying so I thought my foot was broken. I decided I would go to the ER once my plane landed. I sat down on the plane and asked for an aspirin or tylenol or anything but the attendants did not have anything. The plane sat on the tarmac for about 45 minutes delayed and I kept thinking to myself ?should I get off and go to the hospital?? I was in so much pain that I was sweating profusely and eventually passed out. I woke up to the flight attendants saying that we needed to deboard. At that point I hobbled back thru the concourse to my car (the pain was INSANE!) and could barely press the gas pedal without screaming. Unfortunately the only hospital I knew of was back where I came from an hour away so I made that looong drive back. I went to the ER. I was very lucky as the Dr said it looked like ?gout,? and not some other BS illness (even though I had no clue what gout was at that point). I tried managing the pain for 30 more days with pain pills, etc but it never completely went away so I started colchicine. I took 1 an hour until I got to 12. At that point nothing happened so I gave up and went to bed. Well about mid afternoon the following day, I was running for the bathroom and as fast as the pain came, it went away! Guess I had a delayed reactiojn to Colchiocine. I had my regular Doc prescribe me 100mg of AP and then 300 mg a couple weeks later. I?m about to pass the 1 year mark and have only had minor flare ups. As with Zip, I can enjoy wine and beer and some occassional seafood. Anyways, that?s my story 😉

[azasadny]

Several years ago, we were moving a hot tub and we dropped it on my toe, breaking my toe. Well, months went by and the pain never really went away and it seemed to flare up at least once every few weeks. About two years later, I had the same pain in my other big toe, so I knew what it was because my brother had been diagnosed with gout about a year earlier. I checked with him and the symptoms matched. The Dr agreed and gave my steroids to get the pain under control. That was the beginning of my “life with gout”… My SUA has never gone above 6.5 and I've just started taking 100mg of Allopurinol.

[jonpayson]

Keep in mind that i still have a LITTLE GOUT DOUBT, due to the fact that my UA has never tested above 6.3, and by the time i got a diagnosis, the large amount of swelling had gone away (so know aspiration for crystals).  All the minor flares since ive been on allip were never big enought to aspirate (and hopefully never will be.)  If it sounds like gout to you guys, Id love the input

…so heres my story:

I had pain at the base of my second toe which i noticed one afternoon, not insane or anything, but did cause a little limp, i figured i had stubbed it.  The next morning it was a lot worse, and limped a little more but was still able to walk.  I treated it with naproxen, and continued to work on the foot for the next 3 weeks…again, never too bad.  THEN IT HIT ME.  I went on a decent size bike ride, and felt a little more pain then usual that night before i went to bed, then at 5am i woke up in insane pain, my foot was bright red and swollen, there was NO WAY  i could put any wait on it, and i honestly thought i tore every tendon in the thing.  I took two naproxyn, ice, went to the hospital, they sent me home with crutches and an appointment to see a foot dr. This pain ended up lasting about a month (though not as bad after the first week).  About a week after the wake up to the red foot from hell, my left knee swelled way up..and eventually caused a bakers cyst (which i never had before) to rupture and fill my left leg with fluid.  A few days after that my right knee swelled up..but went away shortly, then my neck got real stiff, and then pretty much every joint in my right foot and toes hurt.  then the right ankle.  I was pretty misrable.  When my left big toe started hurting, i started hunting around from dr to dr until someone finaly said it was gout (although the very first Dr i went to said it looked like gout to him, i just brushed it off).

for the last 6 weeks ive been on pred, allip for the last 3 weeks at 300, and .6 colch.  Most of the pain is gone, accept for the Left knee, and a little constant swelling to the right knee.  I should be getting back to work (physical labor) in the next 2 weeks.

that it,

JP 

[Lyndak]

My first attack was probably my left elbow that my Dr decided was tennis elbow (I don't play tennis or engage in any repetitive sports).  He put a shot of cortizone in it and the pain went away.  Then I was prescribed high doses of prednisone to kick start my kidneys that were failing.  Was on this steroid for about 3 months.  That didn't work and I finally had to go on dialysis.  Coming off prednisone, I developed joint pain that seemed to “move from joint to joint”.  I went to a Rhumatologist and he said that I didn't have arthritis.  None of my doctors ever checked my UA level.  I had a transplant a couple of years later and the joint pain seemed to die down.  A few years later I began having acute joint pain every couple of months.  Wrist & knee mostly.  Then, my first big toe attack left me unable to walk.  I was given colchicine and the pain and swelling resolved in a few days.  No UA level was taken then either!  Then I had another attack in the other big toe…not as severe as the first one, but I started to do some research myself on line and I also found this website (just recently got a home computer after retirement).  I told my Nephrologist that I thought I had gout and I wanted to begin treatment which would include a UA level.  My UA came back at 10.4!!  Since then I have taken colchicine to reduce the pain and swelling and have begun taking 100mg allopurinol.  6 weeks later my UA is now 8.0, which is still high, but coming down and I haven't had any more attacks.  After reading posts on this website, I understand that I need to convince my Dr to increase the allopurinol to 300mg.  I'm grateful to all of you for the great information you have provided on this nasty stuff.  Other websites don't give you the insight that fellow sufferers can. Lynda

[azasadny]

Lynda,

  I'm glad your gout is under control and that your UA level is going in the right direction. I am also taking Allopurinol (100mg a day) and I'm on a low dose because of a liver condition. I'll get my next UA on 9/23, I was at 6.5 last month. good luck to you!

[Lyndak]

Thanks Art!  All we can do is try to be informed, and then do the best we can!  Lynda

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