Omg pain!

[mrbaseball44]

Well this is my first post. I just had my first "attack" i guess you could call it. I was flying back from L.A. after a nice long day prior at Disney. The next morning I woke up and it felt like I sprained my left ankle. I was like "what the heck did I do to my ankle"? Then the next day it was ALOT worse! It swelled up all the way up to my calf and the pain was unbearable. I played college football and when I hurt my knee in a game I thought that was bad. I had a team mate come up and knock my knee back in place because the lower half of my right leg was stuck on the inner part of my upper leg. That hurt like hell. Until I had this attack I thought I experienced pain. This gout thing is nothing to be messed with. ANYWAY I tried to ice it and elevate it and it did not help at all. The next morning after that I could not walk..AT ALL! My wonderful wife almost had to carry me to the other room. I was in so much pain that my calf muscle, hamstring and quadricep was twitching and cramping uncontrollably. I told her to take me to the emergency room. They said that it might be a "blood clot" because of the airplane ride. They said there is alot of reports of blood clots on long plane rides. My ride was just under 2 hrs. They scheduled a ultra sound and found nothing. Meanwhile they put me on morphine for the pain. that helped alot:) After that the doctor came in and said that there is nothing they could find and maybe that I had a bulging disk in my back and that it was hitting a nerve causing the swelling in the ankle. Well he gave me drugs for the pain and sent me home. I made a follow up appt with another doctor after 2 days because nothing changed. I managed because the first dork... I mean doctor gave me pain meds. After talking to this doctor for awhile he said that the back thing was BS. He wanted another Ultra sound just in case. So we did that and found nothing. He had blood test done and unrine test too. Thats when he found very high levels of Uric Acid in my blood and urine. Thats when he said that it was gout. He gave me stuff for the swelling and now I am am feeling alot better. I am walking without a cane now and I am back to work. This all happened in a span of a week. I still cant walk up and down inclines or handle stairs very well. But at least I am able to sleep and work again. I am on a diet of Black Cherry extract, oranges and alot of water. It seems to be helping with the INDOCIN the doc gave me. Havent really used the pain pills much. Just ice the ankle once in awhile too.
I dont want to feel that pain ever again. If there is anything out there that I am missing please tell me. Anything that will help me prevent this from happening again. EVER!

[cpt_majestic]

Mr. Baseball:
I just posted above you but I feel your pain (literally)...My story was almost the same as far as duration.. I descibed to a friend it feels like someone smashed my big toe with a hammer as hard as they could, no joke. Let me know if you find a miracle

[mrbaseball44]

Well I cant say that i am back to normal. It still feels like a sprained ankle. I still ice it when it feels like crap. I actually played in one of my baseball games on friday and other than having a hard time running, I felt pretty good. I am slowly changing my diet. I am drinking alot more water and I really dont know if its helping, but I am still taking those Cherry Extract pills. Thinking about riding my bike more. Hopfully the ankle can take it. I wish I had pics of the ankle when it was at its worse so you can see the difference. If anyone reading this has any ideas of how to keep this from happening again let me know!!!

[Brett Thurston]

My advice... learn all you can about dropping your uric acid levels, and then follow through on what you've learned!

I had gout symptoms for years, and it progressed from the sorts of attacks that you have described (although mine were never that bad!), to a long term chronic condition. Although the gout "attacks" were simple to diagnose, the chronic gout turned out to be trickier to get diagnosed. (To get the full story - have a look at the "My gout story" link on my website)

I've actually just posted in another thread about this but at the risk of sounding monotonous I'm going to say it again...

Many people seem to think that their gout comes and goes. But it really doesn't. Unless you do something about the uric acid levels, gout comes and stays!. The manifestation of gout attacks is only the tip of the iceberg and the damage caused by urate crystals in the joints is happening the entire time your uric acid levels are high.

It's important too to realise that this may eventually lead to permanent damage. Although my gout has now been gone for ages, my ankles are permanently stiff and inflexible now because of the damage already done.

Sorry about all the scare stories! And good luck!

Brett

[mrbaseball44]

Yeah i was wondering about that. I feel like the stiffness and stuff will never go away. its a constant reminder. I will never forget about that pain though. Thats whats keeping me from going back to my other habits. I am slamming water like its going out of style. I am changing my diet and taking those little green pills ths doctor gave me. When your wife has to carry you around the house it really changes your mindset on things. Man that sucked. I had to have a cane for about two weeks too. I am back to somewhat normal now. There is still some swelling and my ankle does not look the same as it did before. But at least i can walk normal now.

[Brett Thurston]

If you deal with the main problem, being the high uric acid levels, then you shouldn't have to worry too much about permanent damage. My problems went on for years because they weren't diagnosed properly. So I had a long period of time where I did not have a clue what I had.

You are much luckier as you are now fully aware of the problem. You should be able to avoid long-term damage. I suspect the stiffness you are currently feeling will go away eventually

[cpt_majestic]

Well it's been two weeks now and it's about 95% better...No more beers and lots of water..Back to running now. I hope I never have to deal with that pain again, miserable