re: Gout vs Kidney Stones,..

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This. Just getting an allopurinal prescription and taking it will keep you from ever getting another attack. Diet can help too but sometimes you may just have a genetic disposition to getting gout.

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Unfortunately, I'm up to 400mg of allopurinal on a changed diet and 64+oz of water and still have to fight it. I'm not wanting to go any higher with the allo because it plugs me up to where I have to take laxatives to have a movement. Unsure what changed but it was immediate and without relief as far as my uric acid levels are concerned. I mean it's much better, but nowhere near 'never getting another attack' level.

Most people I hear about have zero issues after getting on allo even with zero diet changes. 53 years without a maintenance med in sight and one day it's like a switch flipped and nothing feels right. Getting older sure sucks.

This is common. Allopurinol will cause flare ups when you first use it, and it did first time I tried. Years later I went to new doctor and he told me to take colchicine everyday for a month while I adjusted my levels. That’ combo worked for me. I had multiple attacks per year with at least one per year in ankle which is hell. I wish so much I’d got this advice years before because I haven’t had a flare up in two years.

America loves a good comeback story

I was told it would be easy for them to get - the week after with the Stint in felt like my kidneys were in a vice every time i peed.

would prefer lithotripsy next time

I had gout for the first time a few months ago. I wasn’t familiar with its reputation as being painful and I was embarrassed at how debilitated I was. I finally went to the doctor because I thought my foot was broke and they hooked me up with one of those steroid shots which somehow makes you feel like a million bucks immediately.

I’d say it was probably the third worst pain I’ve ever had. The peak pain during my pulmonary embolism was definitely worse and the 90 minute period after getting stuck by a stingray in my foot was marginally worse but again, didn’t last long. Never had a kidney stones and hope to never get to give it a ranking.

Allopurinol
Life changing!

I don’t eat refined sugar basically ever and I get gout. Going easy on beer and nuts has helped me I think.

Some people’s genetics just don’t do them any favors. See my previous post about getting blood clots in my lungs at 28 years old as a 6’1 180 pound male. My dad lived in the gym, kept a clean diet and I never saw him with a buzz until he had hit retirement. He still had every ailment known to man.

If I had recurring kidney stones I would contemplate suicide. And I’m not even joking.

Had one when I was 14. Then I had one last year as well.

I thought maybe the 10/10 pain was just my perception of it because I was still a kid.

Nope.

Blinding. Searing. 10/10 pain. That you can’t escape from. You’re simply at the mercy of the stone. You feel like a cow being led to the slaughter.

Vomiting from pain. Passed out from the pain in a pile of my own puke on the stairs alone when my parents weren’t home when I was 14.

With the one as an adult I was in and out of the ER for a week until I decided to let them put a stent in, then laser it a week later, then have a stent in for another week. Was uncomfortable but I should’ve done that from the beginning.

I’ll never forget one time before I decided to go to the ER I felt the attacks coming on. I took two Percocets which knocked the pain from a 10 to a 9.8.

I sat in the living room on my couch trying to meditate and not panic and manage the pain. I sat there with my eyes closed in a full body sweat, dripping off my nose, and shaking from the pain.

It is the worst pain I have ever felt. And I honestly can’t perceive how anything could be more painful than that.

It’s truly hell.

I just want to clear up that allopurinol is not the typically recommended first line treatment for uric acid kidney stones. The problem is primarily urine pH, and alkalinization of the urine (most often with potassium citrate) is generally first line treatment.