There still is quite a bit of pain in my ankle and achilles, but I am getting closer to walking normally again. This is a nice change from the past couple of weeks. Instead of it taking 10 minutes to walk from my car to the office, it's now only taking two or three minutes. It's also nice not to have people staring at me or making jokes at my expense as I walk from my office to the restroom facility on my floor. It's unfortunate that I have to hold my tongue when these people make comments, as there are many, many things I would like to say to them that probably wouldn't make them too happy. Thing is, they would all be truthful. With a lot of these guys I work around, it wouldn't take much effort to come up with some caustic retorts. But, I bite my tongue and tell myself I'm above that. Just one day. One stinkin' day. I just want these a-holes who find my condition so amusing to suffer through what I go through for just one day. Perhaps then they wouldn't chuckle as I go limping by.
Anyway, enough about that. Right now I'm going to continue taking 300mg of Allopurinol every 12 hours for a total of 600mg per day. Hopefully, dividing the dose up will help alleviate the attacks that have been plaguing me lately. If I do continue to suffer attacks, I will be talking to my doctor about lowering my dosage of Allopurinol to 400mg/day. This seems like it would be better for me in the long run anyway. Out of all the posters on the gout-pal forum, I believe I'm the only one taking such a high dose of Allo each day. Yes, it's doing wonders for my UA reading, but the high dosage may also be prompting these severe and frequent attacks. I could live with a bit higher of a UA reading (still keeping it under 6mg/dl) if it meant not suffering through such debilitating attacks.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Now, that you are almost back to being NORMAL, Nate, would you, please, do us UNNORMALS a favor?
ReplyDelete1. Motorize that sign-in wheelchair.
2. Incorporate the change/correction feature, so that we don't have to throw everything in the trash can and start from scratch again when we discover a mistake after posting it.
If you got that feature and I haven't found it yet, what can I say? If I still were a believing catholic, I'd say: Mea culpa! mea culpa! Mea maxima culpa! But, sdince I ain;t that anymore what is left for me to say? YOU tell me!
---------------------------------------------------
ReplyDeleteNate
Very glad your gout pain is coming down. Let's be very, very careful this time. I would keep Aleve dose at 660mg/day until gout pain is down to 0~1 for a week. Then reduce Aleve by 100 mg a week and STOP IT AROUND 440 mg/day (220 mg 2x/d) as anaphylaxis for gout and the back pain. You can decide later the best anaphylactic level of Aleve. You may also like to consider Colchicine 0.5mg, 1~2 x/day for prophylaxis. Ask the doc what does he think when you see him.
At any time, if gout pain goes back up, take Aleve 660~880 mg/day immediately. Don't wait until the pain hit 4~6 to take 660~880 doses. It will be much harder to treat gout then.
Also, you may like to have your back checked by an orthopedic or a neurologist. I suspect some of your unexplained pain in the lower limbs may be the referred pain caused by the spine problem.
Good luck.
(By annon.nn -- not a medical professional)
Nate, I must say that annon is very knowledgeable as a non medical professional. What he advises is almost exactly what I have been doing for more than 25 years. Except, I have been taking Naproxen (the prescription equivalent) since I had a big bottle full which I got 14 years (yeah, 14 years) ago. And it is still doing the job, though I doubt that any one in his right mind would follow my example. As you know me, one has to be out of his mind to be like me.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I have been taking two-500mg/day Naproxens plus two .6mg (that’s what they generally are)/day Colchicines when an attack started. And he is right: Take it RIGHTAWAY. DON’T WAIT. I can tell you stories what happens when you don’t.
One thing I did/do different, that is that I stop with the Naproxen/Aleve as soon as the pain is gone or “not noticeable”, but I do continue at least for a week or two with the Colchicine. This, however, is a personal preference, as with practically all medical suggestions/advises/guides/recommendations. Probably the advice of a trusted medical professional is the best way to go.
PS Now that you are no longer a suffering GOUTY, are you going to ignore me and my posts???
---------------------------------------------------------------------
ReplyDeleteOn 6/9/10 annon.nn said: "Very glad your gout pain is coming down. Let's be very, very careful this time. I would keep Aleve dose at 660mg/day until gout pain is down to 0~1 for a week. Then reduce Aleve by 100 mg a week and STOP IT AROUND 440 mg/day (220 mg 2x/d) as anaphylaxis for gout and the back pain. You can decide later the best anaphylactic level of Aleve. You may also like to consider Colchicine 0.5mg, 1~2 x/day for prophylaxis. Ask the doc what does he think when you see him."
Surprised I made so many typos. The paragraph should be replaced by:
"Very glad your gout pain is coming down. Let's be very, very careful this time. I would keep Aleve dose at 660mg/day until gout pain is down to 0~1 for a week. Then reduce Aleve by 100 mg a week and STOP IT AROUND 440 mg/day (220 mg 2x/d) as prophylaxis (not anaphylaxis) for gout and the back pain. You can decide later the best prophylaic (not anaphylactic) level of Aleve. You may also like to consider Colchicine 0.5mg, 1~2 x/day for prophylaxis. Ask the doc what does he think when you see him."
Hans ~ Me, Normal? Never! And, once a gouty, always a gouty. I'm still far from being 100% right now. I've got a feeling that when I say I'm at a pain level of 3, that would be a 6 or 7 for most 'normal' people. I'm sure you of anybody understands that!
ReplyDeleteI looked through the settings - no edit options for comments. Sorry. I'll work on getting the wheels spinning if I ever find some free time. Perhaps I've left some under the couch cushions.....
Anon ~ I'll keep going on the Aleve at the present levels until the gouty feeling in my ankle and achilles is gone. I'll continue taking it after that, just at a lower dose. I'll talk to my doctor about the colchicine too along with the lowering of my Allopurinol dose.
My back has been feeling 'okay' for the last two weeks or so. Still, I know it's not healed completely. I will also ask my doc for a reference regarding this when I see him next. I didn't get to meet face to face with him last time because of the attack in my knee. We'll have a lot to discuss during the next appointment!
Thanks for all of the great advice, guys! I really appreciate it!
Hi Nate, Of course I do. You must by now have gotten to the point of understanding my warped German sense of humor. I think I was wrong recommending the couch since you seem to be losing too many things under the cushions.
ReplyDeleteHere is a new twist in my life again: After the Manuka honey has done its trick and the Miracle SoapII (that's another story for bedtime) has added quite a bit more ammunition to my armory fighting, cajoling, attacking, collaborating, teasing, luring, ignoring, you name it, this eternal, indestructible creation of the Devil, this new type of pain phenomenon crept up during the night and was so obvious by the time I got up that I had to admit that it wasn’t a figment of my imagination. Both my legs, especially the right one felt like they had a clamp around it. When I bent my knees they hurt (left: ~2, right: ~3-4.) Both knees are not swollen, just slightly puffy (?) and no redness or warmth, heat, high temp. Left one has a bulb, lump or whatever in the back of the bent, but no pain in that area. The bugger is my right knee. Bending, walking, and stretching: it hurts. And what hurts to bout: Not knowing what it is or how to interpret it.
I felt sooo good yesterday afternoon, after a more than 1 hour Jacuzzi type bath in my bath tub, using the Miracle SoapII, that I thought that the roller coaster was on its way up to a level ride. Well, whoever designed this roller coaster outshines all other designers and builders.
One really bad nagging thought, about to turn into a nightmare, is the possibility that the inactivity of my legs (among other things) over the past 5-6 months is backfiring BIG TIME. I can tell: lots of new wrinkled skin, poor coordination, poor muscle tone, poor skin condition, etc. I have practically not walked for 8 months, except a couple of trips to the doctors and/or food shopping (once a month, when physically capable.)
You think this may be something for the Gout Gurus to chew on?
Hans, I'm sorry to hear that. That truly is an evil thing about gout - once you start feeling good, BAM, you're knocked back down a peg or five. This always seems to happen to me now. I can barely remember the last time I woke up and said, "Damn, I feel GOOD today!" Sure, I've had days where I'm happy that I feel better, but never great.
ReplyDeleteAre you getting any kind of, I hesitate to call it shooting pain, pain that travels down from your knees along the side of your leg? Kind of like a tendon or something that feels like a piano wire stretching from the knee area down? I had this during the last knee attack and I would say that it felt like a clamp around my leg. Atempting to bend said knee hurt like hell. Almost astronomical pain levels at times.
I think the inactivity may have a lot to do with it. I've been very, very inactive since October of last year. My legs feel like mush now. Because of this, since the muscles can't pick up the slack of coordination and balance, it may be adding a lot of stress to joints spurring on attacks. This is just a theory of mine, though. God, I try to keep at least a little active, but for four months, I could barely get off the couch. I think this has really hurt me in the long run. I'm not sure what the answer to it is either. Swimming? Light bike riding? I don't know.
I hope you feel better and can figure some way out to alleviate your pain. I heard the peyote is good in the desert SW ;) At least maybe you could hallucinate that your gout is gone!
I'll be doing some walking this weekend. We're going up to Dresden for a quick trip. Luckily, most of the attractions are located in a central area. Any sign of twinges or pain and I'm sitting on my butt and getting off of my feet! I've got no qualms with sitting along the Elbe and eating some ice cream!
Oh, wanted to add - I WOULD post what's happening to you on Gout-Pal. See what others have to say and if they've experienced anything similar. I've been meaning to post on there the last couple of days but just didn't have the energy or a clear enough head to make sense of what I wanted to post. I say give it a go!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Nate, for your response.
ReplyDeleteNo, I never had what you call a shooting pain, pain that travels down from your knees along the side of your leg? Kind of like a tendon or something that feels like a piano wire stretching from the knee area down?
Practically all my pains: toes, ankles, knees, hands, fingers were all localized and never seem to radiate. Depending where the locale was, the pain just immobilized me.
I have never been in Dresden, but from what I know, I hope you have enough memory in your camera.
Dresden was beautiful! They've done a fantastic job re-building the Altstadt over the past 20 years. Our apartment was right next to the Frauenkirche. I'll post a link up with pictures in the coming days. I took around 500 pictures so they will take a bit of time to go through!
ReplyDeleteI hope you are feeling better. I just hope, after an almost pain-free weekend, that I don't get knocked back down on my butt again.