1st time on colchicine/watery diarrhea
Posted , 6 users are following.
Hello,
So I have been dealing with gout for about 4 weeks here in the US. My podiatrist put me on Indomethacin after week 1 - I had toe , foot pain , some swelling but not very obvious gout & he did a steroid injection. Week 2 , still hurting, only add in more of the foot and ankle & does lab work. Uric acid level was 4.7. Doctor put me in a walking boot to rest foot, toe. Week 3 he finally puts me on colchicine. Had to take 9 pills before I finally have watery diarrhea. I am running to the bathroom all afternoon! I finally just took some Imodium. I can't take the burning diarrhea anymore. My ankle still hurts. This is so frustrating.
0 likes, 15 replies
rustygecko Mswginger
Posted
Incompetence
Or
Pumping up the bill.
Change to a competent doctor.
They took three weeks to give you colchecine the medicine that has been the basis of gout treatment for 3,000 years: change doctor.
You took 9 pills - again change doctor. The problem with colchecine is the therapeutic dose is close to the dose that will give you diarrhea. A good doctor would know that if you take the tabs broken in half every few hours you get less problems.
Now, what the doctors should have told you. Drink water - you need to urinate minimum of two liters per day. Not drink - urinate. Second avoid alcohol. Third do not drink anything with fructose or high fructose corn syrup. Medium term lower body weight to BMI 24. Avoid sweet fruits. I found hot water helped. Others find cold water. Others both.
1 month after attack have blood urate test. Take the results to someone who knows what they are doing, like a rheumatologist. Gout is beyond the pay grade of a podiatrist.
Mswginger rustygecko
Posted
Oh gosh. Thank you. We live in a small town & the closest rheumatoid doc is 60+ miles away. I wish I would have known to take the pills in 1/2 like that. I have been sick with the watery urgent diarrhea for almost 11 hours. It's awful. Sorry 😐 if it's tmi.
Sochima822 Mswginger
Posted
What????????? I have lived with gout since I was 14, now 50. When I was 14 they put me in a boot/cast because I was way too young to be taking medicine.
On my second attack, my doctor gave me indomethacin, told me to drink lot of water and cherry juice.
A podiatrist is not medically trained to make sounds decisions on gout. He's following a book which if taken by the letter could kill you.
Go see a real doctor, and not a quack who doesn't know what he's doing because obviously he's not a medical doctor.
Mswginger Sochima822
Posted
Now I'm scared 😳 I'm drinking tons of water.
ChrisW Mswginger
Posted
Hi
Unfortunately you need to keep taking the Colchicine until your attack is under control, although indomethacin should help I would also ask for some pain killers. If things don't improve you can also get some steroids to treat the attack
To help with the unfortunate side effects of Colchicine you could also take a gastric protector, but perhaps also reduce the dose of Colchicine, which will of course take longer to help with the Gout attack
Once the attack has subsided you then need to get your uric acid levels under control, so Allopurinol or something similar plus Colchicine but only a couple of tablets a day
Good luck
Thanks
Mswginger ChrisW
Posted
Thank you. I Go back to the doctor tomorrow (yes the podiatrist-I've asked my primary for a name of a rheumatologist ) and I am going to ask for the indomethacin and ask if I should re-start the colchicine or wait...I read you can't take Alpurinol until 4 months after your 1st gout attack?? I'm considering letting him draw the fluid from the joint to test for the calcium crystals (pseudo-gout) because my mom had calcium deposits- her primary disease was systemic lupus....this is all sounding more like a rheumatologist will figure it out faster huh? Sigh.
rustygecko Mswginger
Posted
As for taking joint fluid - it is the gold standard but not necessary: if you have high blood urate outside of gout attack = gout. Also gout and pseudogout attacks are different. Gout comes in quick, usually at night. Pseudogout builds up slowly over couple of days.
rustygecko ChrisW
Posted
This is good advice.
I'd add: drink water + lose weight.
Guest Mswginger
Posted
Colchicine made me so ill I had to stop taking it. One night I must have rushed to the toilet 20 times, and my arse looked like a gibbon's by the morning.
rustygecko Guest
Posted
The research shows that the vast majority will tolerate 4 tablets in 24 hours. Only a minority will tolerate 7. Imagine when they used to tell everyone to take 6 tablets an hour apart for six hours!
Mswginger Guest
Posted
Oh I hear ya. My bum was burned. I was running every 15 minutes to the toilet. I had diarrhea for 13 hours!!! I had to take Imodium to stop it. The worst!!
I took 3 pills Sat, 6 Sunday, 12 hours apart as instructed per the doctor on call & boom 💥- Monday & 1 pm it hit. I was waiting to hear if I should take more pills & add Indomethacin. Still hurting. Trying to get into rheumatologist.
Guest rustygecko
Posted
rustygecko Guest
Posted
4 is the max recommended (or 3 in the UK because in the tabs are 600mg not 500 in most of world), but even in 4 a good % get "loose stools" to put it politely. It is very strange that just a *little* over our tolerance we get ill.
mark25062 Mswginger
Posted
rustygecko mark25062
Posted