I've had 'gout' for a year now - advice needed regarding medication
Posted , 7 users are following.
Quick bit of history...
One year ago I had a gout attack in my left ankle - came on in the middle of the night. Initially it was extremely painful (couldn't walk without crutches), but there was no redness or heat from the area so the doctor dismissed gout and sent me for an x-ray as they thought I'd broken it. X-ray came back clear and by this point my ankle was hot so they sent me for blood tests. Gout was confirmed by high levels of Uric acid.
I was given a dose of Naproxen, within a day or so it got better and I could walk again. I finished the dose which was perhaps 2 weeks and by this point there was just a bit of pain in my ankle when rotating it round but I could walk again. I lasted about a day or so without the tablets before it came back in the night, I got a repeat prescription quickly and took them the next day and it went pretty much straight away. I took the dose which again was 2 weeks and went back to the doctors. They prescribed me another dose but asked me to not take them until it started again. 1 year later I still have the unopened packet of Naproxen as it never came back again.
They have just sent me for blood tests again and have phoned to say that I still have high levels and they'd like to put me on Allopurinol to lower it - they want to start at 100mg and then increase it after a couple of weeks. They told me the limit for Uric acid was 360 and mine was 517.
I eat healthily and exercise regularly - I run at least 50 miles a month and do quite a few half marathons.
Since I had gout I only normally drink water - I drink over 2L of water every day. The only time I drink anything else is when out for a meal etc. I do drink alcohol but it is very infrequent, I might have 5 or 6 drinks perhaps 4 times a year - I don't drink at home (unless we have a party) (boring I know!) To make a good guess I reckon all but 1 day a month, all I drink is water. In the last few weeks I've been training hard for a run that is coming up so I have also been drinking protein recovery shakes which I have found have helped with recovery for my calf muscles. I have drunk one of these after a hard run (600ml) in addition to the at least 2L of water I drink every day.
I have declined the Allopurinol for now, partly due to the fact that I have this run coming up in a few weeks and don't want the risk of the tablets upsetting things. And partly as I wanted to research it more first.
The Doctor gave me the impression that given my diet and the fact that I drink plenty of water, that they don't think that I could lower my levels through a change of diet.
I also mentioned that during the past year I've had moments where if it was diet, then I would have thought I'd have triggered it (All inclusive holiday for a week - where I ate far too much and drank alcohol every day).
So they don't think it is diet related but said that it could push it over the edge. Before I had gout, I often didn't drink enough during the day at work and didn't go to the toilet at work. So that has been my biggest change since having the attack.
I'd more or less forgotten about it given that I've not even had a twinge since (the ankle continued to hurt when running for a couple of months but I put that down to damage the crystals had done) - but that has all gone now and I get no pain from it. I kind of hoped the blood test would say the levels were normal now and I could forget about it.
I don't really want to go on to the tablets and the doctors have given me the option to leave it for a year and see what happens over this year. I'm down for annual blood tests for life now. However I'm just concerned about whether or not the high uric acid levels will cause any long term damage?
If it helps I'm Male and 35. Otherwise fit and healthy.
Has anyone got any advice regarding the medication given that I have only had one attack? Most people seem to have had multiple attacks when I've read up about it.
0 likes, 36 replies
matt16522
Posted
Made a slight change. I have squeezed lemon juice into my water once a day, and taken two cherry extract tablets. I've done that for the last 11 days with no other changes. My uric acid level has dropped from 8.8 to 7.5. Really pleased with that but obviously I need a lot more tests to confirm that it does stay lower. I'm hoping it will continue to drop.
rustygecko matt16522
Posted
Good news. However, according to NICE you need it to go to <3. That’s an awful lot of lemons.
matt16522
Posted
Haha, it could be. I've got my fingers crossed that it is the start of a downward trend and it will continue to drop. However it could just be a fluctuation and it could be back up next time. I will continue to monitor over the next few months and see what happens.
matt16522
Posted
Update time...
I'm 5 months further down the line, I'm still exercising regularly - perhaps a little more running than 5 months ago - 60-70 miles per month. Plus other exercises etc. between. I've lost about a stone in weight over the last 9 months.
I think my diet is good, I eat three regular meals throughout the day and avoid snacking. We have cut right down on sugar in the house - so my sugar intake is further reduced. I still only really drink water on a day by day basis, with the very occasional alcoholic drink when out with friends.
I've continued to have half a lemon most days in one of my glasses of water, and to take cherry extract tablets most days.
And the good news from all that is I still haven't had another attack - my first attack (Feb 2017) is still my only attack.
However the bad news is my Uric Acid levels aren't getting any lower. I self tested today and had a reading of 11.4mg/dL. Admittedly I've not tested for a while - the last readings I got were around 7-8mg/dL which although a little high was starting to look good.
I'm going to test a bit more frequently again but given that 11.4 looks to be a very high figure and looks to be double where I want it to be, I think it might be worth starting the tablets from the Doctors.
Any advice?