Gout 😥

[Blister]

Apparently the doctor want's me to have a blood test as he thinks I may
Have arthritic gout , Never even heard of this

 

[Stigmorgan]

Apparently the doctor want's me to have a blood test as he thinks I may
Have arthritic gout , Never even heard of this

Gout is a form of arthritis, uric acid crystals build up in the joints, usually the big toe but can be anywhere, and cause extreme pain, the blood test will be to check the uric acid levels in your blood, ideally the result should come back under 300, mine was over 600 on my first blood test, I was put on 1 allopurinol pill a day for 6 weeks then tested again, my levels had dropped to 300 so they put me up to 2 pills a day and my levels are now down to just over 200.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I'm on two now but was on four at one time.

 

[stenik]

Not sure how the Dr diagnosed my bout of gout as all he did was look at me and said "you've got gout". Perhaps it's because I'm a little rotund.
Not had it again

 

[Stigmorgan]

Not sure how the Dr diagnosed my bout of gout as all he did was look at me and said "you've got gout". Perhaps it's because I'm a little rotund.
Not had it again

My first few bouts were several months apart then I had 3 in the space of 2 months, your size doesn't matter so much, it's cause is dietary more than anything else.

 

[Bingy man]

So after 30minute of repeatedly calling the gp surgery and getting a busy signal I finally got through at 8.30 and was in a queue of over 30, by 10.30 I was up to number 10 in the queue then I finally got my turn just before 11.00 only to be told that the doctors were fully booked call back at 8am tomorrow. Ffs all I need is a repeat of a previous script. I know they are busy but it would take less than a minute for the doc to check my file and sign off a new script
Oh well guess I'll look forward to the same tomorrow.

To get an appointment at my doctor you have to call at exactly 8am where if you’re lucky you get into a queue of upto 40 people, if you’re unlucky ( and I am ) you get told via automated message that if you have a life threatening illness to ring off and dial 999 , next the message says higher than normal call levels and as the number of people waiting is above 50 your call will be terminated. This can happen several days in a row .

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Or as I did at the dentist - phone repeatedly from 8.30am to 9.45am, wasting £n only to be told "you really should have rung at 8.30am".

Another bit of lunacy from our GPs - you cannot make an online request for anything out of surgery hours. Why?? I don't expect it answered, but what's wrong with my putting it in out of hours? What difference can it make?

 

[Sideways]

To get an appointment at my doctor you have to call at exactly 8am where if you’re lucky you get into a queue of upto 40 people, if you’re unlucky ( and I am ) you get told via automated message that if you have a life threatening illness to ring off and dial 999 , next the message says higher than normal call levels and as the number of people waiting is above 50 your call will be terminated. This can happen several days in a row .

Ours release appointments one day at a time, seven days ahead, daily at 5pm.
Joining a queue of 20+ is normal.
On Friday, the queue moves really fast because all the admin staff POETS at 5pm, so as callers reach the head of the queue they just get an automated message saying "no one is available, call back Monday", then your call is dropped.

My first gout attack in a year, it took me most of a week to get access to a doc for a prescription of Naproxen. In the meantime I'd bought it online with an online diagnosis / prescription.
I finally twigged that if you have a genuine, pressing need to see a medic, dial 111 and do the online diagnosis / triage with them. They have access to your registered doctors appointments system and got one of our doctors to call me within just a few hours.

 

[Clothahump69]

Late to the party as per usual, one thing I have experience of is acute Gout.
I had my last attack 14 years ago with a slight niggle in 2018 which lasted all of 24 hours, probably wasn't even gout to be honest.
I had been suffering for decades, then 14 years ago I woke up with gout in me left big toe, within 3 hours it had gone into my ankle and whole foot, within 30 minutes of that it moved into my knee. 4 hours later my right leg was in the same condition, I eventually spent 3 weeks unable to walk, just sat in my office chair full of tablets that hardly worked, this gave me plenty of time to study up on cures, to be fair Allopurinol was not touching it.
I made a life changing discovery on an American website, a drug called Febuxostat, marketed in the UK as Adenuric, I immediately phoned my GP and told her, she didn't even recognise the name of the drug so looked it up whilst I was on the phone.
She told me the reason she hadn't heard of it was because it wasn't on the standard list of cures for the NHS, reason being, it was 4 times the cost of Allopurinol, she immediately requested some, it arrived next day and I started them straight away.
It was amazing how quickly they started to work, it physically breaks down the crystals so the body can flush them out, unlike Allopurinol, within a week I was up and around properly and have only had the slight niggle in 2018 to remind me.
I had suffered for 20 years on and off, now (touch wood) I am clear and can eat and drink what I want.
Hope this helps all the sufferers on here, there is light at the end of the tunnel, just request Adenuric at the GP's.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Allopurinol doesn't cure gout, it prevents its onset - a different thing. If you take allopurinol at the onset of an attack it makes it worse not better.
I first got gout 44 years ago and it never made the slightest difference what I ate or drank.

 

[Bingy man]

Ours release appointments one day at a time, seven days ahead, daily at 5pm.
Joining a queue of 20+ is normal.
On Friday, the queue moves really fast because all the admin staff POETS at 5pm, so as callers reach the head of the queue they just get an automated message saying "no one is available, call back Monday", then your call is dropped.

My first gout attack in a year, it took me most of a week to get access to a doc for a prescription of Naproxen. In the meantime I'd bought it online with an online diagnosis / prescription.
I finally twigged that if you have a genuine, pressing need to see a medic, dial 111 and do the online diagnosis / triage with them. They have access to your registered doctors appointments system and got one of our doctors to call me within just a few hours.

This is the route I had to take last year after becoming unwell at a friends house. Severe abdominal pains and as per no appointments. After the 111 triarge I was told to go to the nearest a/e where after multiple checks tests and a scan I was diagnosed with kidney stones. The pain was because they were moving to exit my body but that pain was unbearable. I’ve never had gout and like others thought it was some old war time disease that had since died out . My hat is off to those who suffer with it

 

[Stigmorgan]

Allopurinol doesn't cure gout, it prevents its onset - a different thing. If you take allopurinol at the onset of an attack it makes it worse not better.
I first got gout 44 years ago and it never made the slightest difference what I ate or drank.

Speaking from experience I can agree completely, gout pain is nothing compared to gout pain on allopurinol, 100% something that can't be described.

 

[Stigmorgan]

Or as I did at the dentist - phone repeatedly from 8.30am to 9.45am, wasting £n only to be told "you really should have rung at 8.30am".

Another bit of lunacy from our GPs - you cannot make an online request for anything out of surgery hours. Why?? I don't expect it answered, but what's wrong with my putting it in out of hours? What difference can it make?

I agree it is a pain, especially when you just want to leave a message but could you imagine the endless list of messages they would have every morning if they took info out of hours

 

[Phil Pascoe]

But they'd attend to them in their own time anyway, regardless when they came in.

 

[Bingy man]

The easiest way to get help is 1-mentioned earlier nhs 111,,,,2- go to a walk in centre , 3 - go to your doctors surgery with a flask , sandwich and wait , tell the receptionist you are not going to leave until you are seen by a g p . I’ve seen option 3 used by an elderly gent who had tried unsuccessfully for several days to get an appointment. As he said in his words he’s x army and he’s not budging-when they eventually let him see the doctor he was treated to a rapturous applause by the rest of the patients waiting and the receptionist/staff just sat there red faced .

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Our surgery has thirteen doctors, I fail to see why at least one can't work a walk in clinic. I went to the same surgery decades ago and the receptionist would say fine, wait over there , you might be there for a few hours. If you needed a doctor enough, you waited - I never waited more than an hour.

 

[worn thumbs]

I've seen the effect that gout has and I've seen how quickly an injection relieves the symptoms.I would happily go through life without enduring the pain of it.The problem of getting a doctor's appointment is very real and my local practice recently told the local paper that on a Monday morning they had received 1500 calls for an appointment.which I don't doubt.You would have thought that having several hundred new houses built nearby might have been a clue that the demand for their services would increase.

The last time I really needed to see a doctor fairly quickly I found the line constantly engaged but using this service was the key to getting through All about Ring Back | BT Help .Not free,but it works.

 

[Antomakes]

A delayed response - but relevant

My gout kicked off big time this week - and there were none of the normal triggers.

I reckon the issue is dehydration - I have fans running 24/7 in the heat so I lose water through perspiration, not the kidneys - so the uric acid builds up in toe rather than urine.

So fellow sufferers in the heat - up your water intake!

I began to suffer with gout on and off for a few years until March 2022. It was incredibly painful at times. Mine would appear in my big toe joints or ankle joint and previous sports injury sites. After much research and a lot of untangling of confusing or conflicting information, I evenutally came to the position of realising it's not a condition at all but a symptom of a sluggish, overburdened liver with a strain of Epstein Barr Virus. I changed my food intake, eliminating or reducing certain foods and bringing in others, essentially to clean my blood and unburden my liver and make my body an inhospitable place for pathogens. Since March 2022 I've not had one gout symptom whatsoever and I've had zero medication.