Gout

So I woke up last week with excruciating pain in my knee like I have never felt before and it was swollen beyond belief.  I ended up in the ER, to my family Dr. back in the ER and now back to the family Dr.

turns out I have a bad case of gout (my body doesn't process the uric acid)

the really interesting thing is I was limping really bad and on crutches for a while, midway through the week my foot started to flare up (I have arthritis from an old injury, or so I thought) I figured that with compensating with the limp I strained my foot and aggravated the arthritis.  while in the ER the Dr. notices my foot and says you have gout in your foot too.  I said no that's a re-occurring foot injury/arthritis that another Dr. had diagnosed and besides its the top of my foot/ankle, not a common place for gout, she laughed and said, nope that's gout, tested the fluid and sure enough, its gout.  so I do not have arthritis after all which is great, at least now I can prevent the gout flare-ups.

I also thought it was weird because I thought gout was brought on by eating fatty, rich foods and booze, all of which I have been no where near for a long long time, but as it turns out, if you can't process the uric acid, it just builds up over time and you get the flare up. 

anyone else deal with gout post-op?

So I woke up last week with excruciating pain in my knee like I have never felt before and it was swollen beyond belief.  I ended up in the ER, to my family Dr. back in the ER and now back to the family Dr.

turns out I have a bad case of gout (my body doesn't process the uric acid)

the really interesting thing is I was limping really bad and on crutches for a while, midway through the week my foot started to flare up (I have arthritis from an old injury, or so I thought) I figured that with compensating with the limp I strained my foot and aggravated the arthritis.  while in the ER the Dr. notices my foot and says you have gout in your foot too.  I said no that's a re-occurring foot injury/arthritis that another Dr. had diagnosed and besides its the top of my foot/ankle, not a common place for gout, she laughed and said, nope that's gout, tested the fluid and sure enough, its gout.  so I do not have arthritis after all which is great, at least now I can prevent the gout flare-ups.

I also thought it was weird because I thought gout was brought on by eating fatty, rich foods and booze, all of which I have been no where near for a long long time, but as it turns out, if you can't process the uric acid, it just builds up over time and you get the flare up. 

anyone else deal with gout post-op?

I have NOT, but I feel just terrible for you! What are they suggesting to possibly prevent another flare up?

well first they told me to stop drinking alcohol and to limit my red meat (which I haven't had in a long long time and don't plan too), but apparently because it is recurring there is a medication I can take that will help my body process the uric acid, I see the family Dr. in a few days to go over options, he wanted to deal with the current flare up before we got into prevention.  I was also working with my naturopath and there are a few things that are apparently helpful, certain foods too eat (black currents, dandelion greens, watercress.......) and there are some suppliments that can be used to deal with the uric acid.  I will know more Thursday, but I would do almost anything to never experience this again, if you had asked me last Tuesday, I would have honestly considered amputation it was so bad.

well first they told me to stop drinking alcohol and to limit my red meat (which I haven't had in a long long time and don't plan too), but apparently because it is recurring there is a medication I can take that will help my body process the uric acid, I see the family Dr. in a few days to go over options, he wanted to deal with the current flare up before we got into prevention.  I was also working with my naturopath and there are a few things that are apparently helpful, certain foods too eat (black currents, dandelion greens, watercress.......) and there are some suppliments that can be used to deal with the uric acid.  I will know more Thursday, but I would do almost anything to never experience this again, if you had asked me last Tuesday, I would have honestly considered amputation it was so bad.

Gout is actually a very painful form of arthritis. It can be brought on by high protein rapid weight loss diets. Sound familiar. Glad you got the diagnosis