It has more than met my expectation about not getting an attack, I thought it would reduce down the level of attacks or it would help, but it’s just eradicated it totally for me, so you know it’s beyond my expectation really because it – it has made – it has made the situation a hell of a lot better really. I wouldn’t say my life was blighted by gout in any way, shape or form, but it was really inconvenient. And it was something I could certainly do – live without. And now allopurinol has provided that for me.

I will take, paracetamol, paracetamol and codeine, colchicine, and they gave me the liquid morphine, that type of thing. But I don’t normally take much only sort of codeine and paracetamol now because the, I found the others can upset me and it upsets me more than it does any good in my mind so I don’t take it any more like that no just the paracetamol, paracetamol codeine mostly and ibuprofen, that’s what I take, yeah.

Is that ibuprofen?

Ibuprofen yeah I take that only when the gout attacks yeah, don’t take it otherwise.

And so you mentioned sort of having some side effects from some of the painkillers, you said they upset you, what kind of ?

The colchicine, when they gave it to me in hospital when I had my heart attack and I didn’t realise what it was, I knew it was a painkiller for gout because they told me, but it upset my tummy, it gave me tremendous diarrhoea and sickness, and I swore blind I would never take it again. And I have heard other people, it affects them like it, there are some who take a low dose and they find it helps but I don’t, no, and it’s like liquid morphine I had a really bad attack and I think doctor had got to the stage where you know he was giving me one of the most powerful ones he could, and I took that. It was such bad pain I think I overtook it, I’ve got to be a bit careful, and it did make me, gave me sickness, and also I was a little bit with the fairies you know, I was walking around not quite knowing where I was, yeah [laughter].

I started on Voltarol and that really didn’t touch it at all. Then I was started on I apologise, I can’t remember the name of the drug, it begins with C.

Colchicine?

That’s the one. I was put on that, that didn’t touch it either, though I remember the doctor sort of saying, Well, this will get rid of it totally. That made no difference whatsoever. Then I went to indomethacin, which actually seemed to give me a more relief than the previous two, which didn’t give me relief at all. But, as I said, the side effects of that were horrendous. I really did I remember I was then having to cope with very, very high blood pressure. My blood pressure went up to went over sort of 240, it really shot up the blood pressure from that drug. I seemed to have every side effect that’s elicited with that drug, so I found that though I seemed to get some relief from it, but not very much. It was I was weighing it up was the relief I was getting better than the side effects? And it wasn’t in the end, so I actually stopped it myself. And when I came to that conclusion, my gout seemed to have just sort of resolved itself.

Could you talk a bit more about some of those side effects?

Well yeah, it was very as I said, my blood pressure was very, very high. I also seemed to develop well it’s listed on the thing – I seemed to develop a little bit like a peripheral neuropathy associated which was quite disturbing at the time. I had some sort of tingling in my feet and my I also couldn’t feel my feet as well as previously, which was quite disturbing at the time and I thought I didn’t know what was going on really, because then I started looking at the side effects of indomethacin and it listed it. I thought, Mmm, this is interesting. So the side effects were becoming becoming more worrying that the gout and that’s one of the reasons I stopped taking Indomethacin.

Did you decide to stop that?

Yes, yeah.

Was that in consultation with your GP or?

[Sighs] probably a bit of both really. I mean I discussed it with them, because I was being they were monitoring my blood pressure at the time and sort of trying to come to conclusions about it, but I think both of us probably felt we needed I needed to stop. As soon as I came off it my blood pressure went back to normal, and my pins and needles went [laugh] back to normal and everything back to normal, so I’m not going to go on indomethacin again [laughs].

I can remember coming home and getting on the sofa and making myself comfortable, and just kept popping these colchicine, and by late afternoon the unfortunate side effect of the colchicine, and it happens to most people I believe, is that you can get diarrhoea and sickness. So then you – I find myself asking the question, “Do I take the colchicine and get rid of the gout?” because it does actually get rid of the gout, or do I grin and bear the pain of the gout, and not have the side effect of the diarrhoea and sickness? So it’s like you do find yourself choosing – what’s it going to be, the pain or the other side effect?

I mean I can’t imagine what it must be like to have to endure it without medication, because the medication, it works so quickly, you know. I mean it’s probably it’s hours. I mean it works with me, I would say within a matter of five or six hours max. So, you know, now when well, if I were to have another attack, I would just hightail it to the doctors and get the medication. The thought of enduring it without medication is horrendous, you know. I mean it’s on a par, I would suggest, with a fracture. And, you know, I’ve broken my leg and I know what that feels like, you can’t sleep. Well, it certainly prevented me from sleeping, which is like my litmus test. You know, if it’s stopping you sleeping then it’s serious, you know.

They were prednisolone or something like that.

Did you experience side effects from taking them?

Yeah, yeah.

What kind of thing?

Sort of a palpitations – and after I’d been on them for a few days I couldn’t sit still and I was really hyper. It was horrible. It was a really horrible feeling like my heart was just racing and I just felt really agitated and I couldn’t sleep.

How long were you supposed to take them for?

Well, they kept they’d give me them every so often when I had a flare-up, so it was usually about five or six days. I mean the GP did one time you know I went to see him and he did do an ECG, because he said to me that my heart was racing far more than it should’ve been. So he said to, you know, to stop them.

So did you usually take them for the amount of time that you were prescribed them for?

I did, yeah. It was difficult because of the side effects. But then you don’t want the pain, you know, because the pain’s so bad.

It’s difficult.

It is.

It’s a difficult decision to make. So when you were prescribed them, what did you expect them to do for you?

Well, I’d never had steroids before in my life, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. I mean they said that it was to manage the pain. I’d have taken anything they gave me because the pain was so bad. But I was quite impressed, because they did work very quickly for me. They took the inflammation down in my feet, in my foot, you know, within about two days the pain had gone.

So the big thing, I think, was initiating the treatment, because, Am I going to have an allergic reaction? Okay, people have got to warn you of that even though it’s quite, it’s quite rare. So, actually, Am I going to have a reaction?

So, I can remember we, we actually, I was away with my partner at Christmas. We went to stay in a B&B in the Lakes, and I was going to start allopurinol. So I had my 50-milligram tab, and it was probably quite, quite a big thing [Laughter]. So this is the first time you’re going to take something that you’re probably going to take for the rest of your life. So, I had that, nothing happened, and then over the next few so I went up to 100 milligrams, and I think it was that for a couple of weeks, and then 200 milligrams, then 300 milligrams.

Allopurinol used to make me, sort of tingle, and itch, and so, I couldn’t take it.

Anyway, they tried me on a couple of things, and what they said they’d do they’d start off with a tiny, tiny 0.5 I think it was, allopurinol again, and build it up, which they did do. And, I’m on it, and I’ve no great problems with it now. And, so, that has sort of brought my reading down, from something like 12, or more sometimes, down to three, two or three. And he, he said he didn’t want me seeing him again, I think it was September last year, or somewhere around that time, you know, unless I had any problems. He didn’t want to see me again. So, that’s me, although hes a nice chap, you know I was quite happy.

It was a shock when the doctor told me I was, How long have you had gout?, and I said, I haven’t, but no, no problem. You take the tablets, so when I got the tablets right, and knew I had to take one every day theres no problem. I’ve had no problem with gout, I carry on and as you see outside I’ve got a large garden, I’ve got a log burner so I do a lot of sawing, I am physically fit, I’ve always been a physical person. So yes, I’ve never had my uric acid level test, checked lately, but I do go, we do have a review every six months at our doctors so I’m sure they check it all out.

So when you first went along, and had the diagnosis and everything, how did you feel about starting on a long term medication?

I was a bit concerned, and obviously I did look it up and read all the side effects and things. But then I felt I took it and I didn’t have any problems with it or any side effects, so I felt that it would probably be all right. And if I have to stay on it, I have to stay on it

What were you main concerns, when you said that you were concerned about the idea?

Well, whether there were any side effects, or whether theres any long term problems related to taking the drug for a long period of time. I don’t appear to have had any side effects or long term problems, and I’ve now been on it four, five years. It’s four years now, yeah.