I Got Gout

A new project

2011-11-30T16:57:00.001-08:00

Here we are it's Nov 30, 2011. Thanksgiving is behind us and we are looking forward to Christmas. My wife and I are on the Dave Ramsey budget, we just started so we have a lot of work to do. Our debt is fairly low in respect to total debt, but our debt to income ratio it's very lop-sided. I have selected one debt to focus on and when that is paid off I will move to the next debt in line. I have several items for sale including my motorcycle and my 1998 Jeep with these two items sold we will have our emergency fund in place and a good jump on the second or third bill in line.
Well this will be an exciting new project for us to work on, and I'm excited to see success as we move forward in this project.

Well I'll let you know how things go.

2011-11-13T20:14:00.001-08:00

Things have been going so well that I may need to change the name of my blog to "I don't Got Gout". That's true, I haven't had gout for a long time. It's been great.

Here it is August 2011

2011-08-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

Hello All

Here it is Aug 2011 and my gout seems to be very well under control. I'm am on a regular dose of Allopurinol and very seldom miss a day. It's also been about 5 years from the heart surgery I think that has something to do with it also. Any way just thought I give an up date. How are the rest of you doing?

Regards

Kevin

No joint pain, no gout, no problem

2011-01-30T12:38:00.000-08:00

Greetings all
Today is January 30Th 2011. I have been without gout for six months or so. I still have some stiffness in my joints, but nothing too bad. My wife has started the diet and exercise program that Jillian Michaels promotes. She is dragging me along with her and we are both are doing good. She has lost eight pounds and I have lost six. Aside from the weight loss my diabetes is much more under control. My insulin usage has dropped from 120(+) units to ten units a day. I have been exercising on a daily basis and even though it's been only a week I am feeling better already. Having said all that I am far from perfect at sticking strictly to it, but I'm getting better. So if you're like me start a diet and exercise program and you'll feel better. Don't worry if you aren't perfect, even the smallest change will help.

Better run, have a great day and start something good.

Kevin

Just a short note

2011-01-14T13:24:00.000-08:00

Greetings all
It's now almost the middle of January, the temperature out doors is cold at best. I sure like the warm weather better. I think Spring and Fall are my favorite times of year. Not too hot and not too cold.

I have been gout free for some time now and it has been great. I'm not doing anything special, I take my allopurnal and have cut back on the sugars and calories. Not enough to contribute any significant weight loss.

Just wanted to give an update.

Kevin

My December 2010 Post

2010-12-27T20:07:00.001-08:00

Here we are the end of December. The new year is just around the corner, with all its new adventures a head of us. If we're lucky the green headed gout monster will not be one of those adventures. This promises to be a year of challenges, political as well as personal. We can affect the political, but our area of greater influence will be in our personal lives. I plan on taking several steps to improve my health and quality of life. Take a look at your life and find one or two areas that will make your life more meaningful to you and your loved ones. Set some goals and establish mileposts, measure your progress and adjust your goals.

I have been gout free, or at least mostly for about a year or more. I need to loose about 130 lbs this will help lower my risk of having high uric acid. Anyway good luck with your goals and wishes for the coming year.

Best wishes

Kevin

The Last Several Weeks!

2010-11-26T21:39:00.000-08:00

Here it is, the day after Thanksgiving and my wifes birthday. I'm sure I don't know what I did to deserve such a wonderful woman to share my life with. She has been my best friend from the day we met, and will be until the end of eternity. Thank you Lorie and Happy Birthday!

Well a few weeeks ago I got the gout again. I was in the ball of my foot and felt like I was walking on a marble. It lasted several days and then slowly went away. Then shortly after I got a cold, spent one day in bed and have been coughing now for about three days. It's one of those coughs that tickle in the chest and won't move when you cough. I hate that kind of cough!

Well Hope all had a good Thanksgiving

No gout today.

2010-10-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

This morning I woke up and felt pain in my toes, I thought "oh no", here comes the gout again. After a few more half asleep and half awake moments I realized that it wasn't gout but just my usual morning stiffness. So today I thought I'd look up some other blogs or web sites about gout. I found this one " Gout Relief Cures " . Check it out and see if you like it as much as I did.

Have a great gout free day.

The end of Aug 2010

2010-08-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

Greetings all

Here it is the end of August and I have had a little gout in my wrist the last couple of days, but not bad enough to stop me form being active.
The work up the canyon is coming to an end and so I'll need to come up with more projects to keep me busy. I called about some volunteer work with "Meals on Wheels" I think that would be a fun thing to do.

Well I better run, sorry for the short entry but I'm having a hard time staying focused.

Stay gout free.

The gout monster raises its ugly head

2010-08-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

Greetings

Well here it is Aug 17Th 2010, and I have gout! I felt it starting to come on last night and by morning I was having difficulty walking. I kept moving cause that seems to help and then at around 10:00 AM I took some Colchicine then at around 1:00 PM I took 4 Ibuprofen and by 8:00 PM the pain was just about gone. I'm not sure it'll stay way until morning but for now it OK.

Well that's it for now. I'm still helping my son up the canyon as camp host. We meet a lot of interesting people. I'm not sure what I'll be doing when this ends but I'll have to find something cause I have to be busy.

Have a gout free week, Month and well year.

Kevin

Another month as camp host, and very little gout!

2010-08-03T10:12:00.000-07:00

Here we are in August, where has the summer gone? Before we know it we will be wishing for warmer weather and wondering where all the snow is coming from. Winter has it's pluses though, life slows down a little and we can take some time time to reflect, or in my case wonder how I'm going to pay next months bills. Of course I do that all summer anyway.

My wife and I have been talking about the bills and planning ways to reduce our overhead. We have decided to sell many of our items that we can live without, like our vehicles, the tractor business. We have decided to make our adult children pay for things that they have conveniently neglected to re-reimburse us for, like their auto insurance and certain living expenses. May be if our plan is successful we will be empty nesters - ha ha.

Well since this is a blog about gout I should spend some time talking about that for a while. Over the last several weeks the fight against gout has gone well. I woke up with it in my knee one morning, I didn't take anything for it, but as the day progressed it went away completely. I've also had it in my toes and wrist a little but not so much that I had to stop working. I have had touch of the old arthritis and achey muscles mainly in the morning and if I sit for an extended period of time it's hard to get moving again, I think my diet is causing that.

Well I better run for now. In my next post I am going to post some photos of the camp where my Son and I are hosting.

Good blogging

Another month with no gout

2010-07-19T18:01:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Yes it's been another month with no gout. I've been helping my son with some camp host duties and it's caused me to be much more active. I've lost several pounds and been in the sun a lot. I believe that the more active a person is, gout is less prone to occur. I still have a lot of weight to loose but I feel more motivated than in the past. Oh, and I have cut way back on the soda pop, I still have one now and then but only one or two a week. I think that I'll even give that up so it will be one or two a month. The soda pop has way too much sugar and the diet is just nasty. Besides I have read that the artificial sweetener stimulates your appetite. Anyway, going so long without gout is awesome. I better run, Stay gout free

Kevin

It has been a good run so far!

2010-06-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for several months because I have had "NO Gout". Now I've said that I hope I haven't altered some force in the universe that will bring the gout back to me.

Well we have moved back to my home town for about 1 1/2 years and then it will be on to a new adventure. We have all been very busy and I think that may be one reason that gout has stayed away for so long. I believe that the more active a person is the lower the chance is of getting gout.

Now my Son is a camp host in a local campground and I have been helping him. It is kind of fun and it keeps me active. The best part about it is talking to all the people who are camping. I have met some great people.

Better run

Today is moving day

2010-03-30T21:34:00.000-07:00

Here it is, the first night in our new digs, My brother and Sister-in-law are serving a mission for the church and we are living in there home for 16 months while they are away. So we have put our home up for sale and moved in their home.

Their home is a nice home, its heated by propane and wood so it doesn't have the nice forced air furnaces I have been use to, These heaters require a little more effort than the forced air furnace. This means that gathering up and chopping wood (Let me finish this tomorrow)

Well here we are, it's been about a week since I started this entry. I think I was writing this when it was very late, because I had some words that I didn't recognise. I corrected them, I still can't figure out what I was trying to write.

As I mentioned we are living in another house for about 18 months while my brother and his wife are away on a service mission. I have had a small bit of gout in my right toes but nothing that is keeping me from getting around. I believe that my gout runs in our family. My father and mother both had it. I have one brother that gets it from time to time but fir the most part his is under control. The meds that I'm on for gout seem to help so I'll just keep doing what I need to to keep the big monster away.

Better run for now.

Just a little (more) research

2010-03-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

The website listed below is selling a product I have not tried, therefore I have no opinion of it's effectiveness.

In doing a little more research on gout I'm finding more and more that diet, although important is not the most significant cause of gout. Below is a statement I found at the web site uloric.com.

" When it comes to gout, diet is just one part of the story, and it comes into the picture differently than you might expect. Despite popular mis-perceptions, diet is not the root cause of gout. However, it is one of many things that can trigger gout attacks in people who already have high uric acid levels. Gout isn't caused by the foods you eat or the beverages you choose. It's caused by a buildup of uric acid in your blood. "

This site talks about the importance of treating the cause, not just the pain. I know that when I'm in the middle of a gout attack all I want to do is get the pain to stop. Then when it finally does I conclude that the treatment worked. That may not be the case. Just because the pain is gone the cause of the pain is just waiting there for the right conditions to attack again.

As far as diet goes the research suggests that diet is only about 1/3rd the cause of uric acid production and that your body produces the other 2/3rds of uric acid acid on its own. So if your body is already producing high levels of uric acid then you add a big plate of shrimp to your diet you have just pushed the levels too high and the "Gout Monster" is on its way!

Well thats all for now, stay gout free and healthy.

Gout Gout Gout!

2010-03-15T21:21:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've had a bad flare up of gout, but I'm always listening to articles and stories about gout. Lately I've heard some ads on TV about gout.com, I've been to that site and it's not a bad site. Take care of yourselves.

Gout is back for a visit

2010-03-06T21:30:00.000-08:00

On Thursday morning I woke up with gout in my knee. It was starting to get bad, I couldn't straighten my leg and walking was difficult but not impossible. I took two colchisene and started to drink water. By the end of the day I was still in pain so I took ibuprofen for the pain and within three hours I was feeling good again. So today was good no pain and could get around very well. I guess I better get serious about loosing some weight.

See ya

Saturday Night Sushi

2010-02-28T14:45:00.001-08:00

Here we are Sunday afternoon. My son reported his mission today in church and we had family and friends over. I cooked pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage for about 3 hours, it was great. I love to cook for friends and family. We went through 41/2 dozen eggs, 5 batches of pancakes, 3 lbs sausage, 5 packages of bacon, and almost 2 gallons of milk. We all had a great time and it is good to have him home.

Anyway, Saturday night my nephew and his wife came up to spend the night. He served a mission in Japan and acquired a taste for sushi, so he and his wife wanted to try a local Japanese restaurant named "Happy Sushi". After I finished with some projects that night my wife, my son and I, and he and his wife went to the "Happy Sushi". My nephew ordered two roles one a Mexican role filled with cream cheese and the other a spicy tuna role, We also ordered several dinner box specials 2 Teriyaki Salomon, and a Teriyaki Beef. The food is excellent so if you are in Logan, UT and are looking for a great lunch or dinner try the "Happy Sushi" check out the reviews at this link reviews.

Now back to the gout, we ate Sushi on Saturday night and on Sunday morning I had only a trace of gout in my left toe. So I believe I dodged the bullet that time.

Well this entry turned out to more of a restaurant review rather than a story about gout, but sometimes that is just the way it turns out.

Stay gout free!

Purines, How do they affect us?

2010-02-23T09:49:00.000-08:00

I have been doing some more reading on gout and its causes. We know that high purine foods can bring on a gout attack but are there other factors that are involved? As I've read in Gout Pal "The traditional view is, all high purine foods are foods that cause gout. However, research shows that the relationship between food and gout is more complicated... A recent study shows that only meat and fish purines are significant in gout attacks and eating dairy foods can reduce the risk..." If you are interested in lowering the purines in your diet check out the link, low purine diet.

The human body is a complicated machine and one combination of foods may work for some people, and other people, that same combination may cause problems. There are some factors that are constant two of those constants are high purine foods increase the risk for gout attacks as well as being over weight. The latter is my challenge, I'm significantly over weight and this is a problem for gout as well as may other health problems.

I've been toying with the idea of starting a 2nd blog on weight loss and even go as far as to track my own weight loss or gain as the case may be. I would include my diet and exercise schedule. I think this may help me be more accountable to keep my activities consistent.

Well I'll sign off for now.

My missionary son returns home

2010-02-17T13:23:00.001-08:00

Today I break from my usual topic of gout and men's health. My youngest son has been serving a mission for the LDS church in the Utica, New York mission. He has been gone for two years, we have had limited contact with him.

When a young man serves a mission for the LDS church they can email back and forth once a week and can call home on Mothers Day and Christmas. A mission is usually a great experience and provides a period of great personal growth for the young man. The higher aspect of a mission is to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to others.

Because of the requirement to go out each day and meet new people a young man learns to conquer his fear of talking to people he doesn't know, any way to get to the point we pick my son up at the airport tomorrow night. He should be released from his mission Friday. It will be a huge change from his activities from the last two years.

So wish us luck in his transition back into a life out of the mission field.

Just a little gout research

2010-02-10T10:28:00.000-08:00

Just doing a little research on gout and thought I'd share several web sites with you. I came across a site that talks about Colchicne gout treatment - gout pain relief. The site is "Best-Gout- Remadies.com" This site gives a little history of colchicne it's side effects, what it's made from, and dosage. This site is an excellent source for information on gout.

I have heard a lot lately that vitamin C will help with gout. What I found is that vitamin C can help but it's important that you use it properly. The link "Vitamin C for gout" may help in deciding if it will work for you and how to use it to get the maximum benefit.

Did you know that gout has a negative effect on the heart? In fact just behind smoking, and a family history of heart disease, gout is the third highest risk factor for heart attacks in men. The link ArthritiseToday.org will give you more detailed information on the risk factors of gout. The best thing we can do for gout is one thing that I find the hardest, that is to get down to your ideal weight and stay there.

Good luck with your fight against gout.

A blog that I like to read

2010-02-02T19:58:00.000-08:00

Here is a blog that's a great blog for information on gout some remedies and helps. Take a look at Gout Chronicles. Just click on the link and read this awesome blog.

The Echo- Cardiogram results

2010-02-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

Here it is the 1st day of February the echo was completed and the call from the doctors office came reporting the results. The results were ass follows all things looked within normal parameters. So I guess I'll just keep going and as long ass I don't miss my medications my heart doesn't bother me too much.

The diabetes is under control and the gout has not been back for a while now. All in all things are doing OK. The only thing I need to do now is loose weight and then I think my health would improve much much more. Maybe I should start another blog on weight loss and track My progress through that blog. It might give me more incentive if I had to report my results each week. Well that's something to think about.

Let me know how your doing and any home remades you have for the health problems you experience.

Monday's Echo-Cardiogram

2010-01-26T19:10:00.000-08:00

My echo-cardiogram was yesterday. I heard the tech's record several numbers none of which meant anything to me. The tech's did say that they didn't see anything that was extremely abnormal. So now I guess I'll wait to see what the doctor has to say after he gets a chance to read the test.

I woke up with a little gout in my knee this morning so I took some cholchezine and it seems to be cleared up for now. Hope it stays away, I have to much to do to be stuck in my chair for several days.

anyway when I get the results form the test I'll pass it along.

Good by for now

The Cardioligist visit

2010-01-24T18:58:00.000-08:00

Here we are, it's Sunday already. I visited the Cardiologist on Friday, he took a good look at my EKG and said that what I had was not A-Fib but my own rhythm. He did say that it appears that I am missing beats and that could be what I was feeling. He did schedule me for an echo-cardiogram on Monday. I'm sooo excited. My heart is still beating funny and is not right so I guess we'll See what the echo shows.

My gout has been good, just a few twinges every now and then. Well that's all I have until I get the results form the echo, I'll get back on and let you know what happens.

See ya