The Gout Support Center

Every person is unique, but when you face a challenge like gout, you are never alone. Countless men, women and children have faced the exact same diagnosis and have survived and thrived. The following guide is designed to help you navigate your journey with the best information and resources that helped other survivors when they faced the same challenge.

TSC has scoured the Internet and assembled links to the very best gout resources: articles, blogs, forums and tools that can help you make better decisions and take action to overcome the range of physical, emotional and other challenges that you face.

As you’ll see, we always welcome your ideas and suggestions to make this gout guide even more helpful to survivors like you.

JUST FOUND OUT

Survivors Say: Best Resources for Gout

• Patient Education - Gout A great source for gout information and resources.
• Learn About Gout What gout is and how it forms; along with information on treatment options.
• Gout - MayoClinic.com The Mayo Clinic's Guide for living with and treating gout.

The Big Picture 

At it's most basic, gout is a disease triggered by the abnormal buildup of uric acid in your joints. While this is a painful experience, it can grow worse with increased tissue damage if not properly treated by a medical professional.

Gout - Treatment Overview

Your Gout

Before you can truly seek to treat your gout in an efficient matter, it is important to understand the types of gout, including primary and secondary gout. This information is found in great detail from Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Causes and Types of Gout

Although geared for cancer patients, this information from The American Heart Association is instrumental in providing information on second opinions for any medical condition.

Second Medical Opinions

Questions to ask your doctor when you're just diagnosed:

Gout - Expert View - Questions to Ask

Your World 

After being diagnosed with gout, you may feel a range of emotions, from anger to depression to anxiety. Learning how to control those emotions will greatly aid in your progress as a survivor.

How to Gain Control of Your Emotions

Written generally for cancer patients, this site still provides great tips on one of the most stressful tasks of all – breaking the news of your gout to friends and family, including children.

American Cancer Society - Breaking the News About Your Diagnosis

Gout Myths

• "Gout will go away on it's own."
• "Untreated gout is not that painful."
• “Gout is a rich person's disease, coming from overindulging in drink and fatty foods.”

Information and Recommended Links for Survivors:

Survivors say these are the best guides -- check them out to find out more about your options.

• GoutGuide.com An entire website devoted to the latest news about gout, gout treatments, and living with gout.
• Gout - Chronic - Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment of Gout A comprehensive, constantly-updated guide on gout from The New York Times; includes recent news articles.
• Gout Foods And Diet An entire site dedicated to what kind of foods you can eat to help reduce the painful effects of gout.

Types of Treatment

Medicine and Potential Side Effects

Gout is traditionally treated with drug therapy. The Mayo Clinic provides a great resource on typical gout medications and how they work in alleviating your symptoms and pain; you'll also learn about the medications' potential side effects.

Gout: Treatments and Drugs - MayoClinic.com

Surgery

In the most extreme cases, untreated gout can only be relieved with surgery to remove the uric acid buildup.

Gout - Surgery - WebMD.com

Creating a Support Circle

• Set up your TSC Survivor Profile
• Join support groups of other survivors or set up your own
• Interact and provide updates

Health-care Providers Who Can Help

Medical doctors are usually the primary health-care provider in the treatment of gout, although their work may be supplemented by a nutritionist's work. In extreme cases, your doctor may recommend a surgeon for consultation.

Learn about the various medical professionals who may be involved in your treatment:

Doctors and Medical Specialists for Gout - WrongDiagnosis.com

Resources to Find Doctors:

WebMD Physician Directory
DoctorDirectory.com

The Emotional Roller-coaster

To avoid experiencing anxiety and stress over having gout, it's important to continue participating in the same daily activities you've always done, while accommodating your special needs. Support groups are also important to maintaining a healthy emotional state. Other than that, educating yourself on the reality of gout can help give you ways to better handle the disease. 

Books Survivors Recommend

• Beating Gout: A Sufferer's Guide to Living Pain Free by Victor Konshin
• Getting Rid of Gout by Bryan Emmerson
• Gout Hater's Cookbook I by Jody Schneiter

Dealing with Gout: Information for Co-Survivors:

How you can help

• Assist your friend or family member with their day-to-day duties or chores, but be sure to find a good balance so as not to throw off their pattern of living, which may increase their stress as they may feel they are becoming a burden.
• Preserve your friend or family member's daily activities to maintain a sense of regularity in their life.
• Involve your friend or family member with others. Don't focus exclusively on their disease and treatment plan when interacting with them. Talk to them about yourself or make plans to visit friends and loved ones. A survivor involved with others has a better chance of avoiding feelings of abandonment.

What to say

• "Tell me what the symptoms are, so I can understand what you're going through."
• "You should consider joining a support group."
• "I care about you, and I'm here to help."

What not to say

• "You're having a gout attack now? We were supposed to go..."
• "We don't have to go out if you think you might have a gout attack."
• "You need to eat better."
  

Things you can do for a survivor every day

• Lend an ear.
• Collect books or articles on this topic.
• Sympathize with them, letting them know you care.
  

How to build a support network

• Set up your TSC Co-Survivor Profile
• Create a support group for your friend or family member.
• Interact and provide updates

How can you use and share what you've learned as a survivor? How can you continue thriving physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually? How can you give back to the community? By telling your story, you can not only put into perspective your thoughts and feelings, but you can provide hope to others who are going through a similar journey themselves, whether it be with leukemia, another form of cancer, or a completely different disease.

Recovery / Recurrence

If your gout worsens, do not be discouraged. There are clear treatment plans for this problem, as well as dietary methods to cope with it.

Gout Symptom - Treatment and Causes

Developing and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is essential to helping you fight gout and other diseases. Even if your gout worsens, it is never too late to adopt a healthy lifestyle.

Self-Growth.com - Foods to Avoid for Warding off Gout Attacks

At some point, you may wish to pursue an additional course of treatment for your gout. If traditional treatments do not work alone, consider incorporating a diet rich in Vitamin C and other nutrients in your treatment plan.

Natural Remedies for Gout - Alternative Therapies and Treatment for Gout

Give back

What helped you while you were dealing with the diagnosis, undergoing treatment and realized you had recovered? Take a look back at your journey and share with other what helped you and what you wished you would have known/done during your gout experience. You can create a profile, reach out to other survivors, join support circles or share your story by following the links at TheSurvivorsClub.org.

Untreated, gout can lead to kidney stones and to nodules under the skin called tophi.

If you think you may have developed kidney stones, there are ways to treat this complication.

Stronghealth.com: Urological Conditions -- What is a Kidney Stone?

There are also medications available to treat tophi.

Buzzle.com: Tophi Gout Treatment Will Improve 

If you are continually dealing with highly painful gout attacks, make sure to keep your doctor apprised of your situation. Additionally, the emotional stress can be modulated with quality pain relief.

GoutTreatmentTips.com - Gout Pain Relief

And remember, there are things you can do to try to reduce the severity and frequency of future gout attacks.

GoutCures.org