choongyong.koh April 15th, 2008
Don’t worry, I am not going suicidal. This is just the thought that went through my mind when my gout attack was at its peak last night. Every beat of the pulse was like a 50-pound hammer striking my red-hot swollen left ankle. It is in times like these, I wish that my heart would stop beating, so that my ankle can get a moment of relief.
Gout is the condition in which excess uric acid in the body crystallizes at joint (in a random pattern), resulting in the body immune system to send the white blood cells to “neutralize” the crystals, thereby inflaming the joint, causing extreme pain that is only second to kidney failure (as a disease).
It started on 13 Oct 2000 morning (I remembered the date because it was Friday the 13th) when I had my first attack on my right knee . It began as a slight discomfort in the joint, which I usually dismiss with a quick jerk of the knee to release a “click”, which will do the trick. That day the “click” did not work, and the pain started to grow so intensely that by the end of the day I was not able to straighten my right knee. Being young and ignorant, I dismissed the problem and carried on with work. I forgot how torturous that evening was but I do remember going to the doctor the next day and ending up lying at home for the next 5 days, immobilized.
The doctor did a blood test subsequently and found my uric acid at a very high level. A check with my mother shows that she suffers from high uric acid level, but Internet researches also told me that males are more susceptible to gout attacks than females.
Strict diet follows: no bean products (tau-hu, tau-pok, tau-huay, tau-kua, all my favourites, not to mention peanut, groundnut, cashew nut); no red meat (beef is a big no no); no alcohol (good news for me, valid excuse to tell people I don’t drink - I don’t like to drink); no shell-fish (no loss to me, prawns, crab, mussels, not my liking). However, throughout the years, as I describe my condition to different people, more items that I supposedly cannot touch pops up: strawberry, spinach, mushrooms, salmon. I have to take these with a pinch of salt, because there are really too many suggestions but mostly are anecdotal. More recently, I even hear from someone telling me I cannot be eating potatoes and yams and sweet potatoes!
However, no matter how I watch my diet, the attacks still come at the rate of about 2-3 times a year. Granted that there are certain times of the year when I am a little lax with myself (who can resist the food at Lunar New Years?), but I also eat with moderation.
Some kind hearted friends suggested some traditional remedies: boiled pandan leaf water, detoxicating teas etc….but it was either the remedies did not work on me, or I was not patient enough to see if they are effective. The problem is that these remedies will not relief the pain when the attacks come, they will only prevent the attacks, and probably I did not continue with the remedies long enough to see if they really stopped the attack.
There was once I seeked Traditional Chinese Medicine help. At the onset of an attack, I ask the sinseh to give me acupuncture to relief the pain. The result was that the pain was worst after the acupuncture, but until now I don’t know if it was the original effect of the attack, or it was the after effect of the acupuncture.
So what I am doing about it now? The only thing left is to see my GP every time I get an attack and get the medicine to reduce the inflammation and relief the pain. Both Western medicine and TCM says that this condition is not curable, meaning that I will have to live with it as long as I am alive. My GP tells me I have to start exercising. Every time I get an attack, I promise myself to start exercising after the attack. When the attack is over, I am usually so overwhelmed with other things that exercising slide down the todo list into the section unofficially for tasks that I mean-to-do-but-will-almost-never-get-down-to-it.
However, this time is a little different because it is the first time I blog extensively on this. Let me promise myself that I will pick up some form of exercising (I actually got an exercising machine at home after last year’s gout attack) and sustain it after I recover from this round of attack.
Wish me luck. 
In the mean time, I am still trying to distract myself by doing something (like blogging) instead of thinking about the pain in my ankle (it has subsided to a numb soreness, but still aches when I try to move the ankle)..
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