As I mentioned in my other post, I believe my gout is genetic as my mom also has gout. Here is one of my mom's experiences which I think it's worth of sharing.
Two weeks ago, my mom was having a flu-like pain symptom. She felt so bad that she could not sleep at all for 2 days. Her doctor said it could be flu so she just gave her some pain killers. The drug did not kill the pain and her blood pressure went up 170mmHg. So we got her to the emergence room in hospital. The doctor there could not have an exact diagnosis for her symptoms neither. Then, my mother went home and she felt better for 2 days. She also went to a Chinese Physicians for acupuncture. We thought she was getting better by rest.
Then she had the pain again. She said that the pain is indescribable. Her blood pressure was also high. So, she went to hospital again and stayed for 2 days for a detailed checkup. The doctors said all the reports showed she was normal in condition. And they wondered if the pain was caused by depression. We just didn't know what happened to her and felt pretty desperate. With nothing we can do, she was discharged from the hospital. We just hope resting can make her better. Gradually, the pain had gone for almost one week.
Tonight, my mom told me that she suspected it was her Gout pills causing her the pain. She said she felt a little bit pain again after taking the pills "Allopurinol", which she had stopped taking for around 2 weeks. The "Allopurinol" was a new prescription by her doctor recently and she was told to take 100mg per day. I checked the side effect mentioned on the box. It just tells skin rash, exfoliate, urticaria, and pururic lesions etc. Nothing related to pain she got.
So I did a search again for the information of the drug. The function of Allopurinol is to block the production of uric acid in the body. There is a webpage mentioning a detailed side effects list of Allopurinol. I spotted some of the effects are joint or muscle pain, and general feeling of discomfort or illness. That’s similar to my mother’s case but exactly. So I further check the drug’s box and found a leaflet inside. It mentioned the following side-effects as well:
"pins and needles", loss of feeling in part of the body, high blood pressure.....
That is exactly what my mother felt! We guess we have found the cause of my mother's lately sickness. Why did none of the doctors ask my mother for any prescription of drugs she has been taking? That’s unacceptable!
As a kindly reminder, it's better to check the side effects first before taking any drug for Gout.
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