UKC

Ok, think I'm suffering - severe pain in the joint of my big toe, on day 4 of this now - cant seem to bend it all!

Diet is fairly good, from all that I've read, and tend to drink red wine as opposed to beer so not sure why Ive come down with it - self diagnosed as nae chance of getting to see a doctor.

Anything I can to stop this? Anything top help with the pain?

In reply to subtle:

Yes: diet, reduce alcohol consumption, drink more water, take appropriate medication, maybe even see a doctor...

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/gout/

In reply to subtle:

Get down to the grocers/supermarket and, if available get a punnet of cherries and scoff the lot. Apart from naproxen it was the only thing that was effective for my gout attacks.

In reply to subtle:

If it is gout its bloody painful.  Do you get the classic white patch when you press on the swelling?

Anyway, take painkillers by all means, but when I last had a severe bout a few years back it was only the prescription medication that worked - mercifully quite quickly. 

In reply to Dave Garnett:

To be fair the OP pointed out he's got no chance of seeing a doctor.

But you're right, if it becomes persistent he does need to see a doctor. Diet etc didn't work for me, I was getting attacks even with low purine levels. Going on allopurinol (very reluctantly) was the best thing I ever did.

In reply to subtle:

I had identical symptoms a couple of years ago which I initially self diagnosed as gout, no great surprise as I have a diet which would shame Henry VIII.

After a couple of months I saw a doctor, got checked out and it turned out to be osteoarthritis in the big toe joint.

Worth trying to get a proper diagnosis.

In reply to subtle:

I feel your pain. Had a bout of gout either side of New Year and it was excuciatingly painful - couldn't even rest the duvet cover against my big toe and I was housebound for four days. I got a 3 day course of Colchinine from the GP and that worked but longer term allopurinol is what they recommend. Had blood tests too and uric acid levels were high. I hardly drink alcohol so not that.

I now have a bunion on my left foot/ big toe joint and one is starting on my right - so as gout is an arthritic condition it is potentially the start of osteo arthritis which is a bugger as it has made my mother housebound for the last 10 years.

Hope it clears up.

Davie

In reply to subtle:

If you're unable to get to speak to a GP then higher dose ibuprofen (if it's something you can take) from a chemist would be an ok option. 

Really you should speak to a doctor as it needs a diagnosis and some investigations doing if it is gout. 

In reply to subtle:

I had quite a lot of investigation of various pains a few years ago when you could still see a dr, and eventually the conclusion was gout. This was 'proven' by being put on allopurinol, since when I've never had another episode - it's been life changing.

It's low-impact and with few noticeable side-effects, (none in my case.) Is there no mechanism where you could have even a telephone conversation with a GP or nurse and get a prescription? Worst case, it wouldn't achieve anything so at least you'd know it wasn't gout.

In reply to DR:> I feel your pain. Had a bout of gout either side of New Year and it was excuciatingly painful - couldn't even rest the duvet cover against my big toe 

Try viagra, it won’t cure the gout but should help lifting the duvet off your toe.

In reply to 65:

Second that. I had osteoarthritis come on very rapidly....it was probably building up for a while, but I had one particularly hard kick into a climbing wall that wrecked the remaining cartilage, and was excruciating. 

GP initially had blood tests for gout, but x rays confirmed it was osteoarthritis.

It's manageable for now.....incidentally, I experimented with removing lactose from my diet after reading a post on here, and it notably reduces my joint pain. Still noticable, but only hurts while climbing if I've been on the cheese now!

In reply to subtle:

My sympathies, I know what you going through.

I had my first attack of gout in Florida - a tad sore to say the least. $550 to register with a doctor then they would see me, no thanks. Pharmacist told me allopurinal would settle it but I had to see a doctor first. No chance. After a week of strong painkillers and hardly being able to walk I tried another pharmacist who said try an iced water foot bath, as cold as I could get it. So cold water and lots of ice, foot in for as long as I could take it a couple of times a day for a couple of days and, lo and behold, the swelling went down, the pain eased and I could walk without any pain. 

A couple of bouts of this later in the UK a visit to the doctor confirm gout and I was prescribed allopurinal which has worked a treat for five years with only the ocassional twinge. 

So a very cold footbath as a temporary measure but see your doctor. It'll be worth it.

In reply to Ridge:

As cherries are quite high in purines and therefore a prime candidate for triggering a gout attack, I really really would not do this.

In reply to subtle:

Best get a diagnosis. I’ve got OA in one of the big toes and it is now almost totally immobile. It could have been gout in the early stages, but wasn’t. Still have painful episodes, but they are much less now the joint can barely move.

I think if it is gout then more can be done particularly with diet and drugs.

In reply to Moacs:

Possibly so, but they lower uric acid levels in the blood, which directly affects the joint. If the OP is already having an attack they might have a beneficial effect. They worked astonishingly well when I had attacks, (and others report the same) but they're no substitute for medication. 

YMMV, as they say.

In reply to subtle:

Last June I started having pains in my big toe, a bit as if I'd kicked something too hard, except I knew I hadn't. I left it a couple of days assumming it would go away (might have taken some Ibuprofen) but it got worse, became swollen & red and seemed particularly bad at night. My wife said it sounded like gout & I went to see my GP who agreed & ordered a blood test to check my levels of Uric acid. Meanwhile he prescribed Colchichine, plus some painkillers to treat the swelling, etc. Also a prescription for Allopurinol. Blood tests confirmed high Uric acid /gout but the Colchichine got rid of the pain within a couple of days. Unfortuantely he also prescribed something for high blood pressure & the gout came back a couple of weeks later. Change of treament for hypertension & the Allopurinol, plus change of diet/weight loss (little red meat, little alcohol including no beer) & I've not had an attack of gout for several months.

No idea what brought it on but was pretty grim for a few days until I got it treated.

ps Most of the sources of information on what food to avoid/prefer all mentioned that cherries were good for gout sufferers

In reply to subtle:

Lots of fluid plus Ibuprofen and suffer for a few days.

I think I had it once....I woke up after a heavy session and the pain was very noticeable....I thought I must have fractured it (big toe joint) and must have been more drunk than I'd realised.

I went to A&E and was told I had gout.....I felt well ashamed!! Not had it since but a mate of mine who is still pretty fit in his mid 50's has had a few episodes....he does like red wine though!!

Hope you are pain free soon....

In reply to abr1966:

Being a gout 'sufferer' (though it's well under control with allopurinol) I looked into all the evidence about diet, port wine, rich living etc etc and it's all very ... suspect, not clear cut at all. You sometimes get the impression that health authorities always use any opportunity to knock what they perceive to be unhealthy choices by associating them with bad things like gout, automatically.

There definitely was a link between gout and offal such as liver, so I've avoided that and not had an attack since. No sacrifice tbh, though I've also been taking allopurinol as well.

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

Yep agreed.....I read up a bit about it at the time....mine was probably drink and diet specific at the time but as you say it's not all clear cut...

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

Exactly my experience, allopurinol solves the problem but I understand a reluctance to prescribe as it's "for life". 

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

Same here. I did note a correlation between eating shellfish, but the frequency of gout attacks began to increase even with cutting out 'bad' foods and alcohol. Likewise my uric acid levels weren't 'abnormally' high, even during attacks. Doctor was of the opinion that some people are naturally prone to developing gout. 

David Lanceley said:

I was really reluctant to go on allopurinol, due to it being 'for life'. It was actually one of your posts about your experience with it that prompted me to go on it (and the fact it was starting to seriously impact my mobility). So thanks for that Rob. It was life changing.

In reply to Ridge:

I've changed somebody's life! (For the better, hopefully )

Years ago we used to talk about girlfriends/boyfriends. Later we talked about our families. Now we talk about medication...

In reply to Rob Exile Ward:

Incontinence stories next…..

In reply to subtle and the thread:

Gout and arthritis are not exclusive. My toes are wrecked from more than 40 years on the judo mat, and, if it were not for allupurinol (blessed be Saint Ratiopharm), even looking at a steak would trigger a gout attack.

If your joints are full of trigger happy immune cells due to the tissue damage, very little excess uric acid is required for them to go crazy.

In my personal experience, Diclofenac works much better than Ibuprofen to control any bout of joint inflammation, regardless  of whether it was triggered by mechanical overload (e.g. from climbing with too much load on my toes) or eating the wrong stuff (pre allopurinol).

CB

In reply to Ridge:

Ah well, we all have to man up and get on with it.  I always consider myself to be in pretty good shape for my age (any age actually) but I've been taking thyroxine since my late 30s.  When I grumbled that I didn't like the idea of my life depending on taking a pill every day, my wife, rather unsympathetically I thought, retorted that an important part of my life already depended on her taking a pill every day.

Over the years, despite no serious illness, I added taking an antacid PPI at bedtime, and now a low dose of prophylactic statin and homeopathic aspirin on the unwelcome but inescapably logical advice of an excellent cardiologist. 

Still, if the only time you feel old is when you collect your bag of medication from the pharmacist, you are incredibly lucky.      

In reply to cb294:

Rheumatology in a nutshell!

In reply to subtle:

I took Allopurinol for a good while, but dietary changes eventually stopped the gout recurring and I gave up on the meds.

Immediate solution is probably Ibuprofen.

In reply to charliesdad:

How did you know?

Serious question. The allopurinol should have stopped the attacks anyway, so you wouldn't know if the dietary changes were effective.

In reply to all:

Cheers, the pain has/is subsiding - drinking lots of fluids to try and flush it all through, taking ibuprofin for pain relief, and errrrr eating banana's as I read that they help?

I've been doing a lot of googling, my diet is ok, not a lot of red meat but probably too much shellfish, I'm not (too) overweight, I don't really drink beer (red wine on the other hand) but I probably do suffer from not drinking enough water so will make a few changes (cut down on seafood, cut down wine intake, up the fruit intake and majorly up the water intake) and see how that goes - if it happens again then I will be straight on to the doc' as I've never had pain like that before, in any part of my body!

To the sufferers out there you have my sympathies, at least I know there is a cure (pill) out there if it happens again to me.

Cheers all.