Quote:
Originally Posted by Tobra
Steroid injection would shut that right down
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I finally took your advice last spring ('09) and injections have worked like a charm, for me. It's only temporary, as it doesn't protect me from future attacks, but every time I've had an injection the pain has gone away completely within 2 days. To the point where I wondered why I waited so long to get the injection in the first place.
Not saying that injections are the proper way to treat gout. It's more of a get-me-out-of-this-attack-which-is-so-bad-it's-killing-me form of treatment.
I've since started taking Allopurinol and Colchicine simultaneously. Allopurinol is meant as a long-term maintenance drug to prevent gouty flares. It's not meant as an acute form of treatment for an active attack. Colchicine, in comparison, is meant for an acute attack, but not for chronic maintenance/prevention. There's evidence that using Allopurinol in an acute attack can actually prolong an attack, as someone else mentioned.
My dad dug up an article that used both Allopurinol and Colchicine in an acute attack setting. One group was in Allopurinol and low-dose Colchicine (one tablet of each, daily), and the other group in Allopurinol and high-dose Colchicine (one Allopurinol and a regimen of several Colchicine, daily). The two groups did equally as well, in term of pain relief. However, the reason to avoid taking any more Colchicine than necessary was/is due to the GI side effects (loose stools) from Colchicine. The high-dose Colchicine group had more diarrhea than the low-dose group. Interestingly, the placebo group had the same rate of GI side effects as the low-dose Colchicine group. Go figure.
Allopurinol has definitely helped reduce the number and severity of my attacks. Any time I feel a flare coming on, I'll pop a Colchicine per day for a couple days, and the pain will go away. Haven't needed a steroid injection since I started on this regimen. Just watch those liver function tests.