I have been fighting gout now for about 3 years and all I can say about it is that having a gout attack is extremely painful. When it was first diagnosed I was prescribed allopurinol and until it kicked in to stop that attack I was first given MethyIPREDNISolone which is taken in exact amounts at exact times. As my ankle—yes, gout doesn’t only attack the big toe—was still hurting I was also prescribed Propoxyphen-APAP.

Due to the fact that I have been on Warfarin for 17 years—which is a blood thinner—I have to be careful of which pain killers I take.

Oh by the way don’t believe that old wife’s tale that gout is a ‘rich man’s disease—it isn’t!

I have had 4-5 attacks since first diagnosed and a week ago Friday it hit again. Usually it will take a few days before the pain subsides but this time it hasn’t and along with everything else it has been exceptionally painful. I took another dosage of the MethylPREDNISolone for the 6 days with no results and then started with the Propoxyphen and still the pain continued so then I took Hydrocodon with zero results.

I did check out google when I was first diagnosed and read all about the foods to avoid and what to eat but that’s about it—I read what it said.

I googled more yesterday and came across the ‘fact’ that cherries were known to lessen the pain of, and even in some cases prevent, attacks of gout. Having Allen’s car I decided to go cherry buying but little did I know that they were out of season. I went to Winn-Dixie, Publix, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s without any luck and finally at The Fresh Market I found cherries at $6.91 A POUND!! OUCH!! I was hurting so I bought a package which was 2 pounds. When I came home I did more research and saw that I was to take 20 cherries at a time. I did before going to sleep and still woke up in pain so I did more research. Turns out it had to be a specific tart cherry called Montmorency. Out I went again and all I could find was a 16 fluid ounce bottle of ‘Montmorency tart cherry concentrate’ for $12.99.  Heck that’s why it must be called a rich man’s disease!!

Reading directions I started with 2 tablespoons as a high potency dose and later as a drink using a 1-7 proportion. Well so far I have spent $26.81 on cherries/cherry juice and still have the pain!!!

Moral of this blog? I am not sure yet!