Gout Pal Interactive

Post edited 8:43 pm – February 27, 2010 by vegetarianGuy

Utubelite said:

By the way, you have been on Allop 300 mg for many days now and SUA levels have dropped significantly. Though it takes time before major benefits are felt, do you feel or see any difference in the pain level or foot in general?

Very difficult to judge. My foot looks normal. It did so 2-3 days after my attack anyway. Last night the burning pain was not extreme. The pain if I press relevant areas is there like it has always been for 1 year. If anything it feels bruised deep inside ever since the attack day.

I can walk normal now but always aware of my toe (specially left one). For example I was in the supermarket today and a lady with her shopping trolley came straight at me so I had to suddenly stop and step aside which resulted in severe 30 second stabbing pain in my left toe.

So to be honest I don't know if AlloP is my answer. Hopefully time will tell. Basically after having my doubts I was reluctantly resigned to the fact that maybe only mechanical problems due to early signs of non Gouty toe arthritis was to blame. It's the attack that made me re doubt everything all over again and go down Gout route.

If the specialist next month after taking new X-rays and seeing the photos I posted here says that sever painful attack I had could happen to me without Gout then I will re-examine things.

The painful attack episode has thrown a permanent cloud of doubt in my mind. I will always be looking over my shoulders for Gout even if every doc telly me that I don't have Gout.

EDIT-

1- If I have Gout then taking AlloP SHOULD fix my problems within reason. 3-6 months of taking AlloP would be my uneducated guess. I just finished 14 days on AlloP.

2- If I have any non Gouty arthritis of the toe then wearing stiff soled shoes should ease the pain within 3-6 months. I am failling to find a stiff soled shoe to fit my wide feet currently so not able to test this out yet.

3- If I have Gout and Gout related or non Gout related arthritis then stiff soled shoes + AlloP should ease my troubles.

I need to find wide stiff soled shoes ASAP!!!! I can make even normal shoes stiff by inserting this carbon fibre insert that I bought but even normal shoes are too tight for me. I think I wil place my x-wide New Balance shoe online order tonight and use it with the insert to make it stiff.

Post edited 7:48 am – March 5, 2010 by vegetarianGuy

I went gym today in the evening after a gap of 2+ months. It was very tiring. I did weights for 45minutes and could do cardio only for 5 minutes instead of my normal 45minutes. Anyway 1 hour after finishing gym I did my SUA test as I wanted to see what AlloP would do post Gym. Well the reading was 7mg/dL.
I am not sure what to make of that reading. I do remember that once last year I took reading post gym when not on AlloP and the readings went up to13Mg/dl. So Allop this time kept it to 7mg/dL but still could not keep it under 6mg/dl. I am down to my last test strip so I could test it in the morning or use it to do another post gym test  on Monday.

EDIT- Was too curious to see what happens in the morning so used my last test strip….SUA back down to 4.4Mg/dl. So gym spikes the SUA levels but by next morning they go back down. With AlloP spike was from 3-4 to 7 and if my memory serves me right then without AlloP it was from 7 to something like 13mg/dl.

Interesting experiment. So if someone is on AlloP and goes gym or does some physical activity then there is a decent chance that crystal formation will start again temporarily ???????

Post edited 4:58 am – March 18, 2010 by vegetarianGuy

Not sure if anyone still reads this  threads but I will continue writing as it's good therapy for me. My feet are playing up right now. Lot of stabbing and electric action happening down there. Tomorrow I have my appointment with female foot specialist surgeon at a well know clinic that deals with pro sports people.
I have been organizing all my data to present to the specialist in the form of a nice A3 visual chart  She is my final hope Can't believe that I have been suffering for one year now!

Vegguy,

That bump after a hard anaerobic workout with weight is pretty mnuch what I might expect…a jump of 3 mg./dL. Taken for the whole body we have about 50 dL of blood so the workout created around 150 mg. of uric acid. Normal daily production WITHOUT a workout is about 700 mg. and for normal people the ecretion rate is about the same amount.

So I guess, measuring uric acid after a workout is not a representative sample.

Why do you feel you need a FIRM shoe insert rather than something with some give like foam or gel?

(Did you get the  Wide New Balance? I checked Modells this weeek and the ONLY shoe they had in wide was a lot of NB's and a SINGLE pair of ugly AVIA's in the wrong size. No Nike, no Reebocks, no Asics., Nada.)

Post edited 10:46 pm – March 19, 2010 by vegetarianGuy

______________________________

VISITED FOOT SPECIALIST TODAY

______________________________

Very nice middle aged female doc. She had a really nice aura. She went through my brand new x-rays and my very well presented information. She completely rejected the findings of the Rhumatologists and ortopedists I had visited in the past.
She said that I absolutely don't have Hallux Rigidus or any sign of arthritis in my joints. She said yes I have wide feet and some flatness in my arch but that was something I was born with and it is not extreme at all. For her she is 99% sure that it is Gout. She told me not to wear shoe inserts and just wear shoes that make me feel comfortable.

She has passed me on to  a Rhumatologist at the same clinic who she very highly recommends for managing my gout. I will see him in a months time. She also said if it was really not gout related then this particular Rhumatologist would get to the bottom of it. Obviously she cannot gurantee that in the future I won't ever get arthritis (non gout related I mean) but as things stand she sees no reason why the other doc diagnosed my problem as Hallux Rigidus!

My joint gaps look normal so no wear or tear of the cartilage so far. There you have it. AlloP I will keep taking. I hope few months of AlloP fixes my 24/7 mid level pain problems.

P.S- Does anyone know the name of two pea sized bones that are situated underneath the toe joint?

odo said:

vegetarianGuy said:

Post edited 10:46 pm – March 19, 2010 by vegetarianGuy

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______________________________

P.S- Does anyone know the name of two pea sized bones that are situated underneath the toe joint?

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Medial & lateral sesamoid bones

Cool thanks.

Post edited 1:59 am – March 22, 2010 by vegetarianGuy

zip2play said:

(I LOVE my bagels covered in sesamoid seeds.)

Funny

The reason I was asking about those two little bones is because the Doc said that they are normally right behind the toe bone (ref to the image)  but in my case they are slightly to the left. She said this in some cases can cause Bunion as sesamoid bone is fixed and does not move or something.

She said but it is not causing the problem in her opinion. Basically she said that if someone had shown her my x-ray she would not have looked at it twice as everything is reasonably normal with absolutely no sign of joint wear.

________________

“maybe gout” is a real bitch.

_____________________

Tell me about it Thing is which Doc do I believe?

- Fact 1:  I have had year long pain. Not very Gout like considering that I have no noticable joint erosion ie. not a case of chronic Gout to explain year long pain.

+

- Fact 2:  I had a severe painful attack few weeks ago for no apparent reason. I was home 3 days prior to that attack resting. So there was no physical reason for that attack apart from chemical problems ie. Gout.

+

- Fact 3:  I month of AlloP seems to have calmed the burning sensation although can't be sure yet as the burning sensation has clamed for a while previously too. The original pain is still there like for last 1 year. Again not very gout like if AlloP is not taking the pain away. Granted it's early days and if I truly have Gout then maybe it might take months of AlloP before the irritating pain goes away.

+

-Fact4: SUA have been high but not super high by non Gouty standards. SUA did drop drastically one day after the attack.

+

-Fact5: Never bought into the Hallux Rigidus crap as the specialist who said that had car salesman like attitude. Plus symptoms did not match in my opinion with any arthritis. So I am quiet convinced that it's not Hallux rigidus.

_______________________________________________________

= Your guess is as good as mine 

Post edited 6:59 pm – April 7, 2010 by vegetarianGuy

So photos of my 2nd ever Gout attack. I am in the middle of it right now

Set A looks less dramatic but both sets taken on the same day (6th April). I am in lot of pain. Even trying to bend my toe slightly kills me. I can't place any weight on my toe region. The image  labelled L and R clearly shoes that my left foot is red compared to my right one (lighting was exactly same for both feet in that particular photo).

Guys in the absence of any abnormal signs with my X-rays and this being my second attack which came on while just relaxing at home would it be safe to conclude that it is Gout that I have rather than any bio mechanical problem?  I mean could anything else cause two painful attacks out of the blue without any trauma or wear or tear in my joints?

Do you agree that I am suffering from Gout?

Post edited 1:13 pm – April 8, 2010 by zip2play

Do you agree that I am suffering from Gout?

I just don't know vegguy.

You've got so many yes's and no's going that you seem to be a construct rather than an actual patient…like a study for HOUSE.

A big NO is the fact that in that right hand picture second from bottom, BOTH bunion joints look equally swollen. This almost NEVER happens in gout, just one or the other.

(Tell me again about that injury…was it a toe kick into something immobile? WHich toe?)

Have you ever taken a diuretic. Your feet look somewhat swollen and I am wondering about a circulatory issue. I'd be curious about any effect 80 mg. Lasix each day for a couple/three days might have? This is completeky out of the blue. Do you know anyone taking lasix (furosemide) from whom you could cop a couple pills, don;t take a thiazide though. Do your feet feel better if you keep them elevated for perhaps a half hour?

I wish I could be more helpful. Perhaps it will be a year on allopurinol before you will know the answer to “maybe gout.”

Off topic:

Do any other toes have sesamoid bones?

I hate to pose a joke at this time but I can't resist:

Patient: “Doctor, my feet hurt!

Doctor: “You have what we call sore feet!”

My best advice: since allopuyrinol treats you well in other regards, take it for a year and then make a judgement call. It seems yours will be at least as good as your see-sawing doctors. But then, most of them said gout…so maybe.

Like I said “maybe gout” is a bitch.