If your husband has gout, the sooner he takes the gout medicine the better. "Emergency gout treatment" section of http://www.ICuredMyGout.org describes what to do in case of a gout attack. Good luck.

Thank you, but I don't know if he has it.
I started this topic to get some information to decide if he has the symptoms or not.
Can you please tell me what the symptoms are?

Star; We see a lot of fist time gout sufforers in our ER. This is there complaints. The classic picture is of excruciating and sudden pain, swelling, redness, warmness and stiffness in the joint. Low-grade fever may also be present. The patient usually suffers from two sources of pain. The crystals inside the joint cause intense pain whenever the affected area is moved. The inflammation of the tissues around the joint also causes the skin to be swollen, tender and sore if it is even slightly touched. For example, a blanket draping over the affected area could cause extreme pain.
hope this is the info you were looking for.

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RE: *star*'s "... what the symptoms (of gout) are?"
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*** The short answer is: "... sudden and rapid development of inflammation, swelling, warmth, shiny red or purple stretched skin, extreme tenderness and intense and excruciating pain in the afflicted area. It also causes malaise, fever, chills, increased heart rate, and high blood pressure. Gout attacks often occur in these areas: big toes and the joints in feet, ankles, knees, hands, wrists, arms, elbows, and bursas, the ligaments and tendons around these joints; and, in rare cases, shoulders, necks, hips and spine. Gout can attack one or more sites at a time, but the attack sites on either side of the body are usually asymmetrical. Gout attacks occur most often between midnight to 2 a.m., and more frequent in spring than other seasons ..." -- more in Section 2 of http://www.icuredmygout.org.

*** On "Diagnosis of Gout is Not an Exact Science" -- see paragraph 3.7 of the above link.

*** For more general gout info: click http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:8q7VRa dNKKUJ:www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/goutand pseudogout.html gout nih&hl=en&ct= clnk&cd=3&gl=us&lr=lang_en

Hi Star -

Your husband is showing classic gout symptoms - goes to bed with no injury, feeling fine; wakes up with excrutiating pain and inflammation, usually in the foot.

Gout is not a contagious disease. It develops when the cells in the body generate uric acid in the blood faster than the kidneys and intestinal bacteria can dispose of it. When too much uric acid accumulates in the blood, the excess is dumped out by the formation of crystals of monosodium urate into the body's connective tissues. When these crystals lodge in a joint, they cause an inflammatory response that leads to the pain and inflammation of gout.

The typical profile of a person who first gets a gout attack is middle-aged overweight male, but there are many sufferers who don't fit this profile. Women can get gout too, most commonly after menopause.

For your husband's immediate relief, follow the advice that others have posted in response to your questions. But you and your husband should be more concerned that his gout most likely results from sleep apnea, which is the cessation of his breathing many times throughout the night for many seconds at a time. The breathing periods are usually accompanied by snoring, but not always. Sleep apnea causes gout because the lack of oxygen causes the cells to overproduce uric acid in the blood. It also makes the blood more acidic so that it more readily dumps out uric acid to keep its acidity constant.

There are very, very few doctors who recognize the connection of gout and sleep apnea. Those who do know that almost everyone with gout also has sleep apnea. The typical profiles are both the same. Long-term sleep apnea can have consequences that are much more serious than gout, even life-threatening. You and your husband will have to be very insistent to get his doctor to check him for sleep apnea. The medical journal references on my website may help convince the doc to do it. The connection of gout to sleep apnea is a topic which receives major attention in my book about the perils of sleep apnea, which will be published in just a few weeks.

Thank you all for your responses. You say that if it is slightly touched it will hurt. Well he was in pain for a while, but he put on his boots and went to work as normal. He was told at work that it is also caused by eating seafood. Is this true?
Also how long does the pain usually last? he woke up on monday with the pain, and it has almost gone away...(I think, I haven't asked him in a couple days)
And is there anything that I can get him over the counter that will help him to relive the acid buildup?

Thanks

Star; this may not be gout. Can you be more specific where his pain was? Under part of his foot in the arch? Could be plantarfascitis. Especially if the pain went away shortly after getting out of bed and wolking around. If this is the case I can help you with this as well. PM me and I'll inform you more.

i had first attacks on right bigtoe. ( red, inflamation, un-bearable pain, even a touch of fan air can not be tolerated)
my case it was first mistaken for injury at that time. After an x-ray it was reduced.
thereafter at appeared again and again at a rough frequency of 4/5 months.
in development the frequency reduced and duration increased.
it change places i.e. some time right toe, some time left toe. later either ankles, then knees, elbows, fingers and so.
in general only one joint attacked at once.
only one instance, my both knees were attacked at a time.
any mild injury can activate gout for a gout patient.
many times it activates it self i.e. without any reason.
it can appear within ten minutes also and become severe-unbearable.
it can prolonged for weeks and reduces very slowly.

in general it is said the a person with a lot of weight, eating non-veg food, taking alcohol, doing less excercise, taking less water is prone to this desease. Increase of uric acid crystal in blood is inviting gouty attacks. It is said to be a malfunction of kidneys or a metabolism disorder.

Normally it appears in Men and after 50 years. My case, 1st attack was when i was 30years old. It is heard that even at the age of 20 this can appear.

Prevention in may case was started taking a lot of water and good sweating excercise every day. In case of a severe attack, use pain killer medicines.