Gout and its symptoms

About Gout, Symptoms, Causes, Treatment and Relief

As a long time sufferer of gout I thought that I would create my own little piece of "blog.com" to help people who are suffering from gout find some relief. I myself suffered with it for over a decade and have finally gotten mine taken care of through watching my diet which I will discuss in a later post. But first things first, lets start by talking about things like "What is gout"

So tell me about gout, you say. Gladly. Well, not really. Honestly I wish that I was one of the many who didn't know and didn't care about gout. Why? Because its extremely painful and can be debilitating. But you already know that, so lets move on and give a simple definition. Gout is considered a form of inflammatory arthritis, where the "victim" often has recurring acute attacks, which are also known as "flare ups."

Symptoms

WebMD lists gout symptoms like this:

• Warmth, pain, swelling, and extreme tenderness in a joint, usually a big to joint. Symptoms sometimes start in a different joint, such as the ankle or knee.
• Pain that starts during the night and is so intense that even light pressure from a sheet is intolerable.
• Rapid increase in discomfort, lasting for some hours of the night and then easing during the next few days.
•  As the gout attack subsides, the skin around the affected joint may peel and feel itchy.

Other symptoms may include:

• Very red or purplish skin around the affected joint, which may appear to be infected.
• Limited movement in the affected joint.

Wikipedia puts it much shorter by saying:
 Gout can present in a number of ways, although the most usual is a recurrent attack of acute inflammatory arthritis (a red, tender, hot, swollen joint).


In my case, I would often wake one day with stiffness in my big toe which would grow over several days until walking was nearly impossible. This is because when you walk your toes bend upwards but due to the inability to move my big toe (or sometimes a middle toe.) So at best I was forced to hobble around. Eventually I purchased a cane which helped out tremendously with mobility and I highly recommend getting one. I actually have two, one for the house and one for the car so that I always had one near. They are less than $20 at any grocery store and are much more dignified than hobbling around!

Next up: Causes Of Gout.