← Return to Prednisone for life?
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Replies to "@dadcue it’s really hard for me to get rid of my anger around not being formally..."
I understand how you feel. I don't really know how long I had gout and it doesn't really matter to me. I only regret that I took so much Prednisone for a very long time. Prednisone daily probably prevented me from knowing if I was having gout flares.
I'm on allopurinol and colchicine now. My uric acid level is targeted to be under 5 mg/dl. I'm also on potassium citrate to shrink the size of my uric acid kidney stones.
"Reduction of Urine Acid. Uric acid stones form in acidic urine, so a key goal is to make urine more alkaline (or basic, with a higher pH). This is often done with medications called potassium citrate or sodium bicarbonate."
https://www.kidney.org/kidney-topics/uric-acid-kidney-stones
There seems to be a lot that could have been done. I didn't need all the pain I went through when I passed that kidney stone!
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For gout patients with tophi (urate crystal deposits), doctors typically lower the target serum uric acid level to < 5 mg/dL. Standard treatment normally aims for < 6 mg/dL.
Nobody really knows how high my uric acid levels were getting because it was never checked. When I passed the uric acid kidney stone, my uric acid level was > 8 mg/dl. I might have been able to change my diet and do other things to keep it lower had I known.
What I found interesting is that IL-6 inhibitors like Actemra which I currently take for PMR might also help with the management of gout.
https://www.healio.com/news/rheumatology/20240219/biologics-fill-very-unique-niches-in-gout-management
The quote below is from the above link:
"Shifting gears, IL-6 inhibition with tocilizumab (Actemra, Genentech) may also have utility in the acute gout flare setting, according to Mandell."
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The following link provides more details if you are interested:
https://www.mdedge.com/internalmedicine/article/272016/gout/il-6-receptor-inhibitors-show-early-promise-cppd
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@loriesco
Clearly, many of us have had interactions with the medical community that have been challenging to say the least, and you are not alone in this regard. Pardon my curiosity, but did a doctor ever recommend or perform a needle aspiration to withdraw some fluid from an inflamed or swollen joint? Examination of the joint fluid can rapidly diagnose arthritis due to gout.