Diagnosed with Gout for the first time today. Need some help from sufferers!

Hi All,

This Labor Day weekend was spent in extreme pain in my left ankle. Finally went to the doctor this morning and he suspects Gout. We imagine that this was brought on by the increase of eating deli meats and old ankle injuries, for which I already have arthritis. I looked through the archives and this seems to be common after WLS. Since I can't really cut out all of the foods that contain purine, I would like some advice on how others have dealt with it. My PCP gave me a shot of Predisone and with an oral dose pack (which stinks because there goes my weight loss over the next week or so....) as well as some additional pain medicine. I have a fentanyl patch for degenerative disk disease and was still in a huge amount of pain from this. I can't imagine dealing with the pain without meds!! Please feel free to offer me any advice on what foods to avoid (or eat!) to help with this. I also know that there is the likelihood that the Gout will flare up again and need to know what to do to help avoid such a reoccurrence. Thanks in advance for your help!!

I'm sorry that you are dealing with this.  My husband gets 1-2 outbreaks per year and it is miserable for him.  He has dealt with this for several years.  He hasn't had WLS (he is normal weight) but his Dr. has him eating potassium, drinking lots of water and staying away from shrimp (his favorite) and nuts.  He used to eat  a lot of shrimp and nuts (cashews and pistachios) and he has cut back somewhat which has helped a little.  Also, he did not and does not urinate very often but it's getting better over the last 1-2 years since he's starting drinking more water.

For him, he gets gout almost out of nowhere and then once he goes on the Indocin it goes away within 1-2 days.   My husband also has degenerative disk disease from a broken T3/T4 back years ago.

Good luck and hang in there.  Hopefully it will go away quickly with the medication.

Thanks for the advice Heather. I know what you mean by coming out of nowhere! I was just sitting down in my recliner and it all of the sudden felt like someone was sticking a red hot poker in my joint. I wouldn't wish this on anyone. 

I too had a gout flare up 4 days following surgery and about every two weeks for several months.  I am now 7 months post op and have been gout free for 2 months.  I am on a daily dose of allopurinol 100 milligrams.  I was told to stay away from shell fish, turkey, asparagus, etc.  This I would not wish on my worst enemy!  I hope yours gets under control soon.

Oh my gosh, I feel so bad for you.  Pretty hard to avoid some of the foods that we need to eat.  My husband has had gout for about ten years although he has not had wsl. It started in his big toe and has traveled to several other joints.  It seems very painful. 

The first thing I did was ordered the book, "Beating Gout" by Victor Konshin and read it.  Also, there are a few good prescriptions out there that do a pretty good job of controlling gout.  My husband takes allopurinol, but I've seen a new drug advertised that seems promising.  He hasn't had a complete flare up of gout for about five years, but he has what I think is comparable to arthritis pain...I guess.  Not horrible pain, but uncomfortable.  Also, this book has a recommendation of taking Aleve when you start having the gout pain and that works really well.  I don't know the dosage, but it's more than what the Aleve bottle tells a person to take and his doctor is okay with it.  Don't know if that's something your doctor is okay with or not.

On the foods that are recommended, I've read about tart cherry juice and we tried it.  Didn't seem to do anything though.  I think he also tried celery root...no success there either.  Everyone's different, though.

I'm sorry, but I have no advice. Just wanted to tell you I hope you feel better soon and I'll send some good thoughts your way. I remember when my ex had his first gout attack. He was in tears and I had to take him to the ER in the middle of the night. Awful stuff.

Not sure about your sugar, wheat consumption or beer consumption, but I know my brother has flare ups every time those increase for him.  He does best on a low carb, low sugar diet, gluten free diet (meaning gluten free beer, if any). There are other grain alcohols you would have to stay away from too.

Here is a link I found that might be helpful to you.

http://www.draxe.com/5-all-natural-ways-to-beat-gout/

Sorry you are dealing with this, very painful.  Not fun!

Thanks for everyone's helpful and kind responses. I am feeling a lot better today with the meds. Hopefully this will not be an ongoing issue. 

I had gout flareups for about 15 years prior to surgery.  I had a minor flareup immediately after surgery, but nothing since (14 months now).  I got permission from my surgeon to consume liquid aleve to break the swelling cycle.

In general, the thing I could tie my gout flareups to most often was dehydration.  They often occurred while traveling, and I wasn't drinking enough while doing the tourist stuff.  I found through research and experimentation that Aleve was as effective as most prescriptions meds in stopping the pain... I got good at detecting the early warning signs and jumping on the Aleve right away to stop it from getting out of hand...

I have read other places that post surgery is a prime time for gout - again due to dehydration and change of diet.

And, as I said, once I got my fluids in religiously, I haven't had any issue since.

Good luck!  I know how much it can hurt - I ended up in the ER with my first bout...  Pretty much begging to have my foot amputated.