New to all this

[agent57]

Hi all,

I started getting gout attacks in my ?twenties. I am now thirty and this year the attacks spread from my foot to my knee. The pain was unbearable and i went to hospital and was given diclofenac and codeine. For the last few months attacks have been alternating between my feet and knee and for the last month pain has been almost constant.?

Here's the thing. I have not officially been diagnosed with gout. I have had a uric acid blood test (this took so long to get done as apparantly i had to wait until ?i did not have an acute attack, then they retested three times) which came back 6.7. I have noticed tophi in my ear and finger but ?my doctors keep fobbing me off. I keep seeing locum doctors who say things like “its really a henry the eighth disease”. Finally I saw a partner at my GP surgery who couldnt get me out quick enough with a prescription of diclofenac (which i have been taking on and off since the first attack in the knee six months ago. She told me that i was far too young to have gout. Now I am in italy with no doctor on a four month work placement. I am nearly out of the diclofenac and have been limping for the last month. I feel like I am going a bit crazy with this by myself. Gout kind of has a stigma which being young you dont want to talk about with other people or employers etc so i do my best to pretnend everything is fine. After reading stuff on here I have pretty given up eating meat and no longer drink beer.

?

I know that this is all abit rambling I just really needed to vent and wondered if there were any other young sufferers out there?

[trev]

You could get to try Colchicine- that helping would point to gout. It has rocketed in price in the USA, though.

Don't bother about age- people in their 20's post here. GouI's not understood well by medics- but the illness is increasing year by year, no surprise really with modern diets, stress & other health challenges.

It's readily treatable- not? like the plauge, another, still existing, medieval illness.

Your SUA will be depressed during repeated attacks- your medics should know this, but often they don't.

SUA @ 6.7 average can be gout, right enough!

You need better care- it gets depressing dealing with both the pain and incompetence.

[Don't tell them this- it may depress them 😉 ]

Take help from here- we're older, but we do know about this cruel? and painful illness!

[zip2play]

agent,

?

Old fart here.

I HATE when doctors diagnose by averages: “Oh that's usually a virus” does NOT mean that bacterial infection no longer exist. “Oh those spots are generally not cancerous” does not signal the end of skin cancer.

I mean really. “Most people aren't run over by buses” shouldn't mean we need not look out while crossing streets.

?

What you need is a solid diagnosis and if you have gout you need to get on medication, usually cheap, effective allopurinol.

?

A doctor COULD get a solid diagnosis by testing the content of your ear bumps for urate. He could also draw fluid from your knee and check for crytals under a microscope. And actually I doubt if there is any other disease that causes lumps on the ear cartilege.

Ask an Italian?pharmacist what he charges for colchicine. It is highly and quickly?effective against gout pain. If it works it is usually diagnostic because it doesn't work well against other types of pain. You will need about 16 teeny pills.

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