[jyl]

I had my first gout attack around 2002, roughly.

Got on a plane feeling a bit stiff in the ankle. Got off barely able to walk, sat at gate waiting for wheelchair attendant who never came, finally grabbed an unused baggage cart, used it to struggle to the car, which took nearly half an hour to move 400-ish feet. Spent the next month going to doctor who couldn't diagnose it, was on crutches for a week, a few months later I got into a rheumatologist and by then the attack was over so they said it might have been psoriasis-related arthritis but who knows? No idea where they came up with that.

Then nothing until a few years ago. Gout came back hard, week long attacks on and off for most of a year. When the ankle wasnt in agony, it was barely able to bend, and very weak. Occasional crutches, a cane almost all the time. Couldn't run, jump, bike, walk on uneven ground, raise onto my toes, do anything but walk slowly on pavement. Gained a bunch of weight which led to, or at least coincided with, all kinds of other problems, from needing more cholesterol and BP meds to repeated gallstone attacks to (my favorite) kidney stone. Felt like an old sick man.

Months seeing an orthopedist who finally said it was probably gout and sent me to a rheumatologist, by the time I got in to her the attacks were mostly over but the ankle was still stiff and weak. But she did start me on allopurinol with colchicine, the latter gave me a way to suppress the attacks and get some control back. I started losing weight.

After that, things have gotten better until right now I have same range of motion in both ankles, I can run again (except that I am morally opposed to running), no issues at all - except my sUA (serum uric acid) is still about 6 so I'm on 600 mg allopurinol to get it down. I'm off the BP drug and one of the cholesterol drugs, still trying to get off the other.

Moral is, gout can come, go away for a long time, then come back hard. The uric acid keeps accumulating in your joints. The damage keeps being done. One day you wake up incapacitated. So, go to the doctor, don't merely treat the symptoms, figure out how to get the sUA down, be it diet or meds.