joshuatreee

Hey All - Just hit day 6 of no booze or cigs. I have no desire to drink (which has been the case for the last year while drinking daily) cigs are still creeping into my mind every once in a while when I see someone smoking outside or on TV. My biggest hassle so far is a gout flair up that happened right when I left detox. I've only had it twice before in my life but this time the timing couldn't be worse. I've got a laundry list of things I'd like to be doing but can't because of my swollen painful toe. I know a couple shots (in my world a bottle) would numb the pain but that's not happening. Just going to have to ride it out. Hope you are all doing well on this Sunday.

faith823

Congrats on six days alcohol free! That is great. Hopefully the pain in your toe eases up. I am not discounting your pain and frustrating. This reminds me of the saying do not take a hammer to your head to forget about the pain in your finger. or something like that.... I wish your toe to heal while your sobriety grows!

trailmix

Or you could go to a real Doctor to get real medicine for your toe/gout (alcohol is not medicine!).

Big congratulations on day 6!!

joshuatreee

Appointment set for Friday the 13th with Dr Michael Meyers. Not joking

ShiftHappens

Really?

Well, you'll need protection.

Take a chainsaw with you, just in case

Pic of Jamie Lee Curtis wouldnt hurt either

Mac4711

Drinking would the the worst thing you could do, because alcohol has most likely caused your gout in the first place. Three gout attacks in the last year of my drinking career finally broke me (and I’m thankful for it!).

I’m now in the third year of my recovery and my gout is totally gone. My uric acid readings went from a devastating 11 down to 6 last time they did a blood panel. That was almost a year ago, I suspect now it’s even lower.

trailmix

lol

Well, at least it's funny if not reassuring!

Atlast9999

Dee74

I hope the doctor can help. In my experience alcohol made my gout worse.

D

joshuatreee

I am sure alcohol caused the gout. I guess I just didn't expect it to hit right after the initial detox. I think I got somewhat dehydrated at the facility since they just had tiny cups and I couldn't walk around with a big gulp cup full of water like I typically do at home. Anyway, I'm used to feeling like **** from drinking daily so this to shall pass

Hevyn

I had a flare up after T-giving. I think it was too much gravy. Drinking dark cherry juice helped a lot. (Lowers uric acid levels.)

Congrats on your 6 sober days - that's wonderful joshuatreee.

Jim1958

I ha a flare up a few weeks ago in the toe. But being sober makes the flare ups infrequent for me. I used to get them more often. Keep up the sober days!

izzy1962

Count your toes when you leave!

Delilah1

Tart cherry juice can be a preventative. My husband has had glut, and takes something to prevent, and I think something for flare ups.

DriGuy

Sorry about your gout. I used to think it was an old man's thing. Something to whine about like lumbago. I actually don't even know what lumbago is, but you kind of get my drift.

Then one time, I got something called pseudo gout in my knee. I don't know the difference between pseudo and regular gout, but it's not the joke that I've seen represented in cartoon drawings. Wow! Talk about pain! I had to get a friend to drive me to a doctor. I had no idea what was wrong with my knee, but I remember feeling hopeful when my doctor said, "Hmmm, I think I might know what this is."

Treatments vary. Some doctors just say, "It goes away on it's own. Just go home and and stop bothering me." Other's take various degrees of action, like draining fluid. But the one that really did the trick was a shot of Dexamethasone. It's what they give mountain climbers who run out of oxygen and are near death on Mount Everest. It may be enough to help them get down to camp 4 just below the Death Zone. If not, they just leave them to die up there.

I was skipping around like a 10 year old the next day. In addition, I was high as a kite talking to strangers, who I was sure were delighted to meet me on the street. I went to see Dr. Strange with all those hallucinogenic scenes, and I thought it was the greatest film I had ever seen in my life. I saw it again two days later near the end of the three day high, and I still thought it was pretty good.

I'm going to stop now, because I don't think any of this is helpful. Good luck with the gout. It's harder to quit smoking than it is to quit drinking.

joshuatreee

Great info Driguy (I think) .. I can't imagine skipping right now. Are you sure it wasn't nitrous oxide they gave you? Agreed about the cigs. Haven't had one since detox and won't but yeah, not a fun substance to quit.

DriGuy

I'm not sure about treatments for regular gout. They may be completely different. Steroids work for pseudo gout. That's all I know.

joshuatreee

This gout is honestly ruining my ability to enjoy the joyous feeling of early recovery. I am in equal to more pain now than I was when I was drinking. I can't believe this is happening now.

Dee74

Diet can help a lot joshuatree - some pretty good suggestions here.

https://daa.asn.au/smart-eating-for-...-through-diet/

D

DriGuy

The second year in recovery, I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. I felt the same way. Here I was engaged in this serious self improvement program of recovery, and I get slapped with cancer. I had to remind myself that recovery wasn't the cause. Life just keeps on going, both the good and the bad.

They caught it early and removed a kidney. It's surprising that one kidney is all you need. Sure, two are nice, but one works just fine. Obviously, I didn't drink over it.