Living With Gout: The Pros and Cons, But Mostly Cons

Right off the bat, Gout sounds like a terrible word. And if any of you have this condition, you'll understand how much you cringe when the word comes out of anyone else's mouth.

What is Gout?

Gout is essentially a form of inflammatory arthritis that develops in some people who have high levels of uric acid in the blood. It usually occurs in the large joint of your big toe (where I have it), ankles, knees, wrist and even your fingers. Sounds terrible right? Wait, it gets better...

My First Gout Attack

One Thursday morning I woke up and started to feel this pain on the bottom of my foot. I thought maybe I had strained it somehow but really didn't think much of it. I continued to go about my day completely ignoring this minor throbbing in my foot. The next day I got out of bed and realized I couldn't even walk on my foot. As I hopped to the bathroom to get ready for the day, I knew something might be wrong. That Friday nights sleep was brutal... If anyone has ever had gout and has experienced a flare up, it's really no joke. The sharp pain in your toe restricts you from even moving your ankle or your leg. The throbbing never stops and pain shoots up and down your leg with the slightest touch of anything and I mean anything! Even the sheets resting on my foot was unbearable. At this point, I realized I had to see a doctor. Originally, I thought I had fractured my foot but considering I had fractured my foot in the past and the pain was nowhere near this level, that option was quickly dismissed. I decided to hop on over to the walk-in clinic where I waited two hours to have the doctor look at my foot for five seconds and say "Your foot is inflamed" and proceeded to prescribe me anti-inflammatory pills. The pills helped after a couple days, but the pain still was not going away. Luckily, I was going home from University that weekend so I could go see my family doctor who could tell me what was REALLY going on. She took some blood and sure enough I was diagnosed with the lifelong condition of Gout.

How to Manage Gout

The most devastating thing I heard as a University student was that uric acid (the acid that causes gout) is high in beer. This meant that I had to limit my beer consumption considerably or even cut it out completely. This was a hard pill to swallow at first but I have now found alternative types of alcohol (mostly sugary drinks) that help manage my Gout. For the food aspect well, this is where I realized my entire diet had to be transformed. There are a lot of foods I can still eat, but the goods ones are slowly slipping away. Let me give you the grocery list.

Things I can't eat...

• Certain types of fish, seafood and shellfish, including anchovies, sardines, herring, mussels, codfish, scallops, trout and haddock (say goodbye to fish and chips)
• Some meats including bacon, turkey, veal, venison and organ meats like liver

These are only the foods HIGH in uric acid. Let us take a look at the foods with MODERATE levels of uric acid. These include...

• Meats such as beef, chicken, duck, pork and ham and shellfish such as crab, oyster, lobster, and shrimp.

Let me clear one thing up; just because these foods are high or moderately high in uric acid doesn't mean I have to cut them out completely, and neither should you. Everything is good in moderation; however, in this case, you have to make sure it's really in moderation because the next Gout attack could be right around the corner. You might be thinking if I can't eat all of that, what on Earth is there left to eat? The answer is not much, but one thing they can't take away from me is coffee. Thank god for that.

The Future of Gout

In the upcoming years of my life, I have to be dedicated to managing my diet or I could find myself hopping on one leg once again. It is by no means life-threatening but it does require a significant amount of planning for meals and watching what you put in your mouth. My doctor has also prescribed pills specifically for Gout which are supposed to bring down the swelling and pain in the event of a flare-up. Being aware of my diet has been a struggle for the past few months; however, it is something I need to live with for the rest of my life. Hopefully the next Gout attack is not anytime in the near future. Stay tuned...