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Nate,
If missed it, I apologize in advance, but why don't you try a home test kit? At least this way you'll be able to get a better gauge of the impact 600mg has vs. 300mg.
Just curious, why would you switch from a 600 dose to a 300 dose if you are not completely sure of your SUA level? That sounds kind of risky IMO. Was this a GP recommendation?
Hey Utube. The pain only bothered me when I walked or stretched the toe. I guess I was being a little proactive since the pain started when I woke up. If it would have come during the day, I probably would have let it go.
Hi Everyone,
So I kept an eye on BP over the course of this weekend and found some consistencies. Boy does it flucuate which makes its very challenging to determine what is accurate! For example, If I walk from 1 room to another sit down and immediately take a reading it is around 140-160/85-100. If I “chill out” for a couple minutes and take a few deep breaths it falls to around 125-135/75-85. I'm a high energy person by nature 🙂 so I noticed that even (at first) hearing the cuff tensing around my rist would get my heart rate up a little and give me a higher reading. I tried taking very slow deep breaths for a few minutes and got the reading down to 117/68 at one point. I guess I'll just let my GP know this next time I visit and see what he recommends.
Hansinnm, how long has your BP been in that range? Anyways, thank you all for the feedback and it gives me some more insight into all of this! I REALLY apopreciate everyone here! I'm going to have a complete workup during my annual physical in a couple weeks and go from there. I'm also going to try and drop about 10-15lbs and see if that helps. I'm not so much worrying about all of this now…I'm more just plain angrybecause, again someone my age, who doesn't meet the “typical” profile for these things, who doesn't smoke, is not overweight, does not heavily drink and exercises regulary has these issues. Just throwing this out there, but could there be some underlying kidney issue that is causing my high BP and gout (aside from the under-excreting overproducing UA aspect)? I know when I originally was diagnosed with gout my Dr said he was going to run some kidney tests to check on them, but I never heard anything back so I'm assuming everything came back fine (with whatever he tested me for). I'm not trying to overanalyze things but I'm just tired of feeling like s*** and want some answers. Anything in particular I should ask for during my next check up?
Thanks Trev. Up until last Friday, I felt perfectly fine. Then after a workout at the gym my equilibrium has been a bit off and I'm pretty sleepy. I tested my BP on Sunday as I still had symptoms. My BP was 135/84. My inner ears have been a bit sore too and it kinda felt like I was getting a sinus infection yesterday. I was actually going to cancel my Dr appointment yesterday, however since I felt a bit under the weather I went in and had him check me for an inner ear infection. He said he didn't see any infection and gave me a home exercise test to help with the vertigo. Aside from being extremely sleepy and the slight equilibrium issue, my body has felt perfectly fine up to last Friday. I just dont want to cause any permanent damage to my body with high BP.
Also I forgot to mention, my Dr. seemed waaaaay more concerned about my systolic number than my diastolic number. His exact words were “I can live with it being around 130, but once it gets close to 150 or above we need to discuss medication. I want you to come back in 2 months for a check up.” My diastolic has been around high 70's low 80's consistently for years. Not sure if that means anything as I know very little about BP.
HI everyone,
Thank you so much for the information and words of encouragement. I'm just feeling a little down on myself lately because I may have to take all these meds and I'm only 31 :(…but I'll live I'm a pretty resilient person. I swear I'm the most unhealthy healthy person I know! I have a lot of pressure at work (especially for someone my age) so maybe I need to make some life changes. On a somewhat good note (I guess), I tested my BP 3X immediately upon waking this morning and it was around 120's/60's. On another note, I have somehow gained 17 lbs and 3-4%+ body fat % over the past 3-6 months so maybe losing that will help (I'm currently 6ft 197lbs with 16% body fat). The challenge is that I exercise regulary (flat bench 300lbs, walk/jog 5-8 miles/wk and do the typical weight training programs)…maybe I need to step up my cardio a bit more too. I'm going back home (up north) in a few weeks and plan to visit my family Dr and have my annual check up. Do you get use to the BP med symptoms? Am I going to have to step up to a higher dose of AP (I'm at 300mg now)?….This just plain sucks!
I guess I'm just bummed a bit because I don't want any more side effects and I dont want to have to take all these drugs. Is there one pill I can take or does high BP usually need multiple drugs?
Just curious, if colchicine kills off white cells, is a person more susceptible to becoming sick with the flu (or whatever) when on the drug?
That's great to hear Utube!
As far as pulling back on the skin, I don't have “loose skin” per se, but when I press around the area I can kinda see some white patches.
Also, I dropped back down to 300mg of AP about a week and a half ago (from 350mg). I tested last night and was also at 3.7!…although I do have pain still at times (mild).
I guess then from my assumption then, the kidney problems caused from gout are mostly the over production or under excretion of UA…which does not necessarily lead to other problems if controlled (since you're treating the problem in esssence).
Thanks for the response and the link. I remember my Dr drawing blood 6 months ago and saying my kidneys looked fine, but I didn't ask what tests where done. I'm having my annual check up done soon so wasn't sure if I should ask for anything in particular. I've run into a few people who have had gout for a long time (10-30 years) and have never heard them mention kidney problems (aside from high UA). Are people with “controlled gout” at a higher risk for kidney damage? Just trying to be proative at this point 🙂
GoutPal said:
It begs the question – should we aim to be skinny (i.e. socially, but not medically, underweight), knowing it gives a lower risk of gout?
Good question, although I have gout and am skinny- 6 ft 180lbs with 12% body fat…so I'm thinking if its genetics you're screwed no matter what! lol
zip2play said:
Post edited 1:41 pm – December 31, 2009 by zip2play
pault said:
Can I still enjoy a few beers if I go on say 100, 200 or even 300mg of daily Allopurinol ? Or will I pickle my liver or something ?
What about steak, prawns etc.?
Can one expect to go back to eating the 'forbidden fruits' when takiing AP ?
Any advice appreciated,
Cheers,
Paul.
My answers are a firm YES, YES, and YES.
So zip means “YES you will will I pickle your liver or something! YES you can eat steak! and YES you can go back to eating the 'forbidden fruits' when takiing AP!”
J/k about the first yes 🙂
I've been on 300mg of AP with UA between 4.0-5.0 on average and have been able to enjoy just about everything in moderation! I iike me a cold Corona or two or three!
Hi Clay,
Welcome to the board! You certainly don't fit the typically profile for someone who has gout…but then again, anyone could get it and I'm seeing more and more “young people” diagnosed with it lately! You'll find all kinds of useful information here! I was diagnosed with gout last summer at the age of 30! I was in your boat and was very scared at the time. Once you read up on this disease and learn that the key to managing it is “controlling your uric acid levels” and NOT managing pain you will find things much easier. Without going into tons and tons of information that may or may not overload you I give you my cliff notes version to your concerns:
Gout is not always due to kidney failure/issues as it can be hereditary…hence your kidneys simply are overproducing or underexcreting uric acid. On a side note, though having high UA levels can harm your kidneys in the long-term. The potent levels of this acid turn into solids/crystals and your body “tries” to fight it off causing extreme pain. So you can see, managing UA to a low level is the KEY to avoiding this pain. Now with that being said, YOU MUST KNOW YOUR UA LEVELS! Either from a lab or from a home test (do a search for the home test kit if needed). Anything above a 6.4 is creating new crystals in your body…even if you are not in pain. High UA is also linkind to other disorders.
Next is choosing how you want to manage your UA levels (not pain levels)? You have some choices:
1. Diet & Exercise- This will probably only drop you 1-2 points
2. Medication (ie: Allopurinol, Probenecid, Uloric, etc). MOST EFFECTIVE! But you will need to take them for life, as there is no cure for gout…yet 🙁
I chose the Allopurinol method (this drug has been aroud for a VERY long time with little side effects) after 2 1/2 months of extreme pain and now I am finding my life returning to somewhat normal! 🙂
Remember you are not alone and we're all here to help you! GOUT DOESN'T HAVE TO CONTROL YOUR YOU! CONTROL UA AND YOU CAN EXPECT TO LIVE A LONG, HEALTHY LIFE!!!
Hopefully this helps! Holler with any other questions
BartMan said:
My doctor has previously cut the toe open and pulled out heaps of is it called tophus (I love google, have found out heaps on this, and found this site in fact) – so I poke the needle into the scar, one at each end.
Seriously, you're only 38 and already had surgery to remove tophi? Ouch that sucks!!!
Hi Utube. You've been on AP for 4 months and our still taking Colchicine? That seems like a long time to me but just my opinion. That could be the reason you havent had any other pains.
Meant to post earlier. My info is:
Started on 100mg of AP back in Aug. About a week later went to 200mg. This dropped my UA from around lows 8's to 4's. I was fine for about 1-2 weeks until I got hit with another attack at night as my UA was about 6 all of a sudden (probably from urate dissolving more from AP). I increased to 300 mg and was around 3's for a few weeks! It slowly creeped back up to mid 4's- low 5's and that's where I'm at today.
Initially from starting AP I felt like crap! Dizziness, heart palpitations, fatigue and blurred vision (hard to focus). After about 3 weeks I got use to the drug. Even when increasing to 300mg I felt no changes in side effects. Today I feel no side effects accept the weird vision thing which I don't understand. I have daily pains in all kinds of joints that I never had pain before, however not 1 major gout flare up since moving to 300 mg. Hopefully after 6 months all my lingering pains will go away!
Wow an increase of 20! Your rationale makes sense though. I've only tested at most 3-4X after a meal so logically there could be small windows of high levels that were missed.
I guess for me the question is, how can I have twinges in the morning after a high purine meal or drinks when UA is below 6? Can high purine intake cause flare ups even if your below 6…or is this all in my head and its not possible lol
You know I always appreciate everyones insite here! Here's where my main confusion comes from and maybe one of you can help me understand this better. We all know twinges/attacks come when either new crystals are forming or old crystals are dissolving. It “appears” in Zips case, when he gets the occassional twinges from beer (or whatever) it is most likely due to new crystals attempting to form. Now in my case, since I have not dissolved nearly enough urate (like Zip for example) most of my pains are from crystals dissolving. Heres where my confusion comes into play. I have gotten the occassional twinges after drinking larger quanities of beer on a couple ocassions (no acute attacks luckily), however my levels were always below 6 during these times. So were these twinges from new crystals forming or old dissolving or is it more complicated and I'm totally off base lol.
zip2play said:
Post edited 7:41 pm – December 3, 2009 by zip2play
I recognize what you mean when you say foot twinges that last seconds or minutes…I frequently get the same. If they ever go on for a half hour, I'll reach for a couple colchicine but that happens only rarely…maybe once or twice a year.
On a good note, you may be able to wait longer than that half hour. Every now and then I'll get one that lasts about a day, but it goes away too without Colchicine. Weird. I'm trying to think on the positive side of hopefully my early AP intervention at the ripe age of 31 will be more effective than if I waited years and years! Although it's still a bit scary knowing I could be on this drug for 40-50+ yrs lol.
zip2play said:
Post edited 3:24 pm – December 3, 2009 by zip2play
I (Betcha you feel some toe twinges the next morning even WITH allopurinol!
)
Haha. I actually think most of that stuff is pretty gross so I wont be partaking in all of it. On another note, I have pains that come and go for a few seconds at a time in different joints on and off every single day. Not sure if these are considered twinges but I don't take Colchicine when they happen (actually I'm not sure what type of twinge at this point should be given Colchicine). I have however eaten a very large seafood dinner and washed it down with beer while walking miles and miles and did not feel anything the following morning (maybe I got lucky). In fact I tested my UA levels that same evening a few times and the odd thing was they ranged from 4.3- 4.7 so I still don't understand this wntire gout thing.
That's great o here your UA levels continue to be low! As far as the drinks comment, I'm am sure you will be fine if you had a few. I've already had a 3-day vacation of drinking beer and extensive walking, and aside from a little soreness (probably from the walking). I was fine. In terms of your residual pain, 3-4 miles/day seems like quite a bit of walking to me. Did you ever think of cutting back to maybe 1-2 miles/day to see if it helps the healing process?
Hi Utube,
I havent tested my UA in about 2 weeks so I did this morning (after fasting). I was at 4.4. I've been on AP for almost 4 months, however only on 300mg for about 2 months. I still have general soreness everyday (knees, bottoms of my feet, elbow) but it is more of an annoyance than a problem. I have resumed going to the gym and I heavy weight train 4 days/wk and walk and or jog 1-2 miles/day. Overall I have returned back to my normal lifestyle (pre-gout lifestyle that is) with the exception I have only eaten red meat twice in the past 4 months. I feel pretty good but still hope that the general soreness will eventually subside. How's your treatment going?
zip2play said:
Post edited 3:21 pm – November 20, 2009 by zip2play
In truth, this new caution on allopurinol started surfacing only when febuxostat began being developed as a pricey patrentable alternative. Before that, allopurinol was spoken of as beijng EXTREMELY safe.
This would not be the FIRST time doctors started pooh-poohing an old well tested, well tolerated, CHEAP generic in faor of the hideously expensive NEW kid on the block. In fact I doubt it would even be the HUNDRETH time these techniques were used to peddle a new drug. The “special care” now being given to people starting allopurinol may well be part of nothing more than a clever marketing ploy.
After all, is anyone started on a 10 mg. dose of Uloric to check for hypersensitivity…no! And that is a drug with NO track record being prescribed for a lifetime.
I wouldn't be so callous if I hadn't seen the same shenanigans pulled innumerable times in the past.
This makes one wonder when AP will be taken off the shelves and redistriibuted under some fancy name @ $50/mo for a prescription!
