Female vegetarian with gout?

[femaleveg]

Hello,
Three days ago my doctor diagnosed me for the first time.
In some ways, his diagnosis fit me exactly: Hot, swollen painful big toe with no injury or other explanation. He put me on indomethacin, which makes me dizzy but is offering considerable relief.
In other ways, it still doesn’t seem to fit. I am a female, pre-menopausal, vegetarian, of normal weight, who drinks a lot of water and doesn’t drink very much alcohol (maybe 4 times a month, never to over-indulgence.) Further, although my current condition fits the symptoms, it did not make a sudden appearance, nor is the pain so bad that I cannot even put on a sock. I had a few weeks of minor pain before I began limping with no abatement and I’d rate the pain a 6 out of a 10 scale. And my uric acid level was a 4.7, which is the high end of normal but still within the normal range, which goes up to 6.5.

I’m hoping you forum-ites can help me with tales of other atypical gout sufferings. Do any of you fall into this category? Or should I suspect I’ve been misdiagnosed?

Thanks!

[limpy]

How did your doctor diagnose it? The only way to know for sure is to draw fluid out of the joint and test it for crystals. Good luck Limpy

[femaleveg]

Thanks for the response. He did a visual examination and took a medical history. He did not do a crystal test but did mention the possibility of doing one.

[odo]

femaleveg said

Hello,
my uric acid level was a 4.7, which is the high end of normal but still within the normal range, which goes up to 6.5.

You need to find out which units of measurement are being used for your SUA. Look at the box on the right and you will see that 4.7 can only be mg/dL and would be a low reading. However, if the decimal point has been put in the wrong place (which sounds likely) .47 mmol/L would be a high reading & consistent with hyperuricemia/gout.

Sounds like a misdiagnosis or misinterpretation by someone.

[Author]

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