eric h
Message 1 of 1
I am suffering so terribly with the gout that it has entirely disrupted my life for 9 weeks!...so far. That is with the help of a rheumatologist; who has put me on colchicine and beginning one week ago... prednisone paks of 4 mg....and vicodin. I do not want to take any medications! The doctor says that allopurinol is my best bet. I am afraid of the drug since it can lead me to another acute attack. One day while at a wrestling show with my 14 year old son while walking back to the train... i could not walk as the bottom of my feet were intensely swollen and stiff...within a day both of my feet were so bruised and discolored that it appeared that someone had beat my feet with hammers! I was in extreme pain, so much so that i would wake up in the middle of the night and in the morning loudly screaming. It got so that i wondered if the neighbors heard and what they thought. The pain in both of my ankles felt as though there were nails stuck in. My left elbow was also inflamed. There I was after finally getting out of bed putting myself on the floor on my backside with my inflamed arm and heels of me feet so that i could drag myself forward on the ground and down the stairs to wash or eat or go to the bathroom. Washing consisted of sitting on the closed toilet bowl and wetting a towel. One day a month after i was sick i was able to horrifically climb into the shower. i turned on the water and curled up like a ball. The skin on my burning feet came off like a snake shedding its skin. And then people do not understand and when you ask for help...to do a simple thing like turn on an air conditioner or change a light bulb on the stairs in the ceiling...my own 56 year old brother threw a candy bar at me and slammed the door and left, I am 51. Only my mother has helped me at all in this time of need. I am sure that i will now be labeled at work as unreliable...this happened to me 4 years ago and i did not think that i would get it again. But in February something did not feel right in my system...but i did not think gout...and just went on. Every day wears more heavily on my mind. I have shouted that i do not want to live like this...there is no reason to be alive to watch television and read old magazines. I am a photographer with a day office job. I can not do my photography, and have missed all of the spring and now into summer. I have been in since April 14th! At that time I got a bacterial infection type of flu and two weeks later could not walk from the dehydration...i believe. I was able to get to my computer for the first time on June 28th; i am able to painfully and stiffly and slowly "walk" now with a cane and on the sides of the bottoms of my feet. I have been taking a $125 ambulette with a wheelchair to the doctors. I was able to drive to the doctor today...but i can not walk...this is the most frightening thing that i have ever lived. After driving and "walking" i was so tired though i had a full nights sleep that i slept for 4 hours. It is as if there is no solution. I have heard from my doctor that there is a new "medication" in France...I am interested. What is your experience? How was allopurinol for you? I am about 20 lbs overweight and hear that this is a factor...yet there are many people at work that are in much worse health and do not get gout.