Oh Constance, I understand you love your wine!? My friend up the road suffers from gout in his feet and sometimes it's so bad he can't put on his shoes. His Dr recommends he refrain from the booze. You can tell he clearly doesn't heed the advise otherwise he'd have it less often!
i think when he has the gout flares he is given medication, but I don't know what.
Yes I know what you mean. I don't drink alcohol, my vice is food, food and more food! No problem prior to PMR. Was always about 9.5 stone no matter what and how much I ate. Am 5'5" so was always nice and slim. Now I'm on a diet working down slowly from 13 stone!!!! It's darn near killing me, but I have lost over 3/4 of a stone so will eventually get there. Regards, tina
Hi Constance my husband has had gout for years he could not walk, i remember he once crawled up the bedroom steps like a baby.
The doctor took one look at ir and said GOUT, gave him tablets as he said the food you could not eat , was food you needed so medication was the best, this was about 25 years ago he still takes the tablets as he does not know what would happen if he stopped, one doctor just said try it. But the pain is so bad he does not want to stop them.
I am sure some one will come along better informed then myself to help you.
another bit Constance he drinks 3 glasses of wine every day!!!!!!!!!!! and i went down from 12.5 stone to 11 stone when i started pred, my doctor was surprised as she thought people put on weight and the moon face.
It really is peculiar that most put on a lot of weight with PMR and some very lucky ones, like me, take weight off - I lost 1 1/2 stones. I've put on about 5 pounds in the last couple of months, but am nowhere near the 10+ stone I was.
I had pseudo-gout, caused by calcium crystals. They then stopped the Calichew as they realised I did not need the additional calcium. Ask them to check your calcium and minerals levels.
Hi Dan. Pleased to hear you are down to 5mg after only 1.5 years. I've only just reached that desirable state, after 3 1/2 years. Pain also manageable, but the fatigue!!!!😡😡
Constance - at the beginning of the PMR, probably a couple of years before I noted the "real" PMR symptoms the middle joint of both big toes was terribly tender to touch. So much so I practically stopped wearing shoes and moved to permanent Birkenstocks! Summer and winter!
It faded over time, with pred disappeared altogether - and hasn't returned. I have heard other people mention similar things. Maybe it is the same?
That GP is talking some hot air - beer and spirits are the alcoholic drinks that increase the risk of gout - and although many people who have gout drink it is the rest of their lifestyle that is more relevant! A diet rich in purines - found in liver and some fish in particular - leads to a raised uric acid and that is what causes gout when it is deposited in the joints. If you have a raised blood uric acid it could be gout - if you don't, it probably isn't. Has that been checked?
As lodger says - there is also psuedogout which can be due to other crystals in the joints, sometimes calcium.
I actually now think it IS LORA. The swelling is bad in both ankles, they are stiff and painful, and this over many weeks. However, I feel I did have a gout attack. It was totally different pain - excruciating for 2 days and has now disappeared. Mad! I think I'd rather have gout, it attacks then disappears.😏😏
My doctor checked back in his records and said before PMR the uric acid in blood was always high. Now, however, it's only just above normal. Strange or what? Pred can't do anything for uric acid, can it?????
I suffer from gout in the joint of my big toe. I can tell when it is starting by the pain but it also becomes very swollen and very red and hot. Before I recognized an attack coming and started treatment right away the pain was excruciating. I couldn't put any weight at all on it and couldn't even stand the weight of a light sheet at night. Shoes were totally out of the question.
I can now tell when it is going to flare and immediately take colchesine (sp??). I have come up with my own dosage plan and it works well when caught early. I only have about 1 attack a year. I believe it is hereditary to some degree as my father and brother both had it as well. It has caused a bunion on that joint and I have gouty arthritis in that joint. The pain is different than RA which I have in my ankle.
Whatever is causing your pain I hope you find something that will help soon.
Pred is often used for the treatment of gout - whether it just reduces the inflammation or whether it has an effect on the uric acid levels I don't know.
But I'm fairly sure that a diagnosis of gout can only be properly made with an aspiration of joint fluid to identify the cause of the inflammation - uric acid crystals, other crystals or even arthritis.
Hi Constance, my son who is 33 has gout and has had it a right few years. He is on 100mg of allpuranol. He has kidney disease and I think gout is somehow linked to this. He has said in the past that the pain in his foot is so bad, he cannot even bear a top sheet on his foot. Regards Pat