My left knee was bugging me pretty bad by Saturday evening. Enough, in fact, that I think the pain had surpassed the 'bugging' level and had moved forward to the 'oh shit this really, really hurts to bend my knee or try to move' level. I was once again relegated to the couch, a friend's couch this time, and unable to partake in any of the birthday festivities that we had traveled north for. Upon awaking Sunday morning, I knew I was in trouble when I could barely put pants or socks on. These are not fun times when this happens. The rest of Sunday was filled with curse words leaving my mouth as my knee would collapse while shuffling to the bathroom or kitchen or couch, causing horrible, knife-like pain throughout the joint. By this point, I was finding it very hard to find any position that I would consider comfortable. This morning, I awoke with my knee even more swollen and the pain being even a little worse than yesterday. Oh, how I love Mondays.
However, I must reiterate a post from a couple of days ago - this attack in my knee is different than every other attack I've ever had in that joint. Yes, there is swelling now, but there is no redness and the knee is not sensitive to touch. All of the pain is internal and the back of leg behind my knee cap is extremely sore. The outside of my knee also very, very painful while I feel no pain on the inside of it. It feels more like an acute injury than gout, but I know that's not what is going on. However, my right knee is also hurting and this is from a former acute injury. The way I am forced to walk right now is putting odd pressures on my right knee and it too is hurting a lot. I guess my upper body wanted in on the fun too as my right elbow is somewhat sore and feeling gouty.
After seven months of 600mg/day of Allopurinol, is this supposed to be happening? I can think of nothing else to do to avoid these attacks. My little bit of walking wouldn't affect my elbow and almost never causes an attack in my knee. I've mainly seen a correlation with exercise and my ankles/achilles/toes hurting but never joints farther up my body. Is my body still cleansing itself? Do I still have huge deposits of Uric Acid in my joints being released by the Allopurinol and causing these attacks? Do I have some other undetected underlying problem that is causing all of this? What in the hell gives?
It will be interesting to see my UA levels on Wednesday morning. I'm sure they are still well below 6mg/dl, yet I'm still getting bad attacks every two to three weeks. All I can think right now, though, is just how much fun work will be this week. The driving, the walking up two huge flights of stairs, sitting in my chair for 9 straight hours, having to walk to the end of the hall to use the restroom, living with the stares from all the people visiting my floor as I hobble down the hall. God, I'm so sick of this. I might as well start eating large quantities of meat and drinking copious amounts of beer as nothing seems to be helping anyway. I really wish I could just take a few months off of work to let my body properly heal. That will never, ever happen though. Well, unless I revoke my American citizenship and become a German or some other EU citizen.
Well, off to work. This should be fun. Oh, and I'm supposed to take a driving test with a stick shift today. Hahahaha! I don't think that's going to happen but I'm sure going to get a lot of shit for not doing it. Maybe I'll get fired and then I can at least collect 100 dollars of unemployment each week while I try to heal my body.............
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Hi Nate,
ReplyDeleteHard to show real sincerity in a blog comment, but you have my deepest sympathy. Seven months is a long time to suffer (to say nothing of all the years before).
I was surprised that you are still having such pain after seven months, and it has prompted me to look at some research.
The good news is that attacks usually fall off significantly after 6 to 9 months for most people. However, attacks can continue for well over a year in some people, and it seems to be related to the length of time you have had gout.
I'll publish the details on my site soon, but though this might be interesting, it doesn't really help you.
The only thing I can think of is to get a joint fluid analysis to check that there are still crystals there. This would confirm that the attack is gout, and not some other complication of your frenetic lifestyle
Thank you GP.
ReplyDeleteI have been surprised that these types of attacks are still springing up too. It just makes me wonder if there isn't something else going on besides the gout or working in conjunction with the gout. All testing has been negative for other diseases/problems, though. Like I keep saying, it's just going to take time and I need to be patient. It's hard, especially during an attack of this magnitude, though. Really hard!
I may go to my orthopedist tomorrow to get my knee drained. There is A LOT of fluid in there right now and it would only help matters and alleviate some of the pain. I may get a steroid shot as well. I'll report back tomorrow.
Thanks again!