Couch 247: Choose Cheese!

My partner has gout and it was caused by a blood pressure medication. It is horrible when she has a flare up

I'm sorry your partner deals with that. My H is on a combo Valsartan and hydrochlorothiazide. Is that what your partner is on, out of curiosity? The second part is the diuretic.

My poem today begins with the line "If I were a lady of leisure" hahahahaha

I honestly don't remember. It came on rather suddenly right towards the end of the covid shutdown - so I could drive her but not go in sort of thing. It was an old-ish drug because she had been taking it for about 20 yrs. The md told her not to take any more of it and gave her some steroids (I think). It took a long while (weeks) to really recover from it. She still can't eat some foods because it will cause her toe to swell and turn purple - she says it starts to twinge as a warning. The one thing that was over the counter that the md recommended was tart cherry juice - she drank a lot of that.

Thanks for sharing. Interesting that she'd been on the drug so long, then started having the gout issues. I did read something about the tart cherry juice being helpful, so will have to see if H will be willing to drink that (generally, the only liquids he ever consumes are water, coffee, and beer). Though I think they make tablets of it, too (I looked into it once because it's also supposed to help sleep). He's trying to get a doctor's appointment today--said it feels less bad, but still swollen and hurts to walk on it.

I've had gout. It's not pleasant. First time it was caused by a bp medicine, Hctz that I'd been on for several years and is known to increase uric acid. Other flareups I think were caused by alcohol. There is a blood test for uric acid levels. There are meds available. One made me too nauseated to take it though.

Finally something very stress-reducing to post re the living situation. They finally sent out the lease renewals. They are changing the renewal cycle to match the school year, so this means i am assured of two more (hopefully swimming!) summers here. Also, they are not raising the rents this go-round (probably because they are working on the elevators for like a year) so that is like getting a raise in income. I have been stressing about where when and how i would move, so i feel like a new woman. Love that status quo!

Ugh, I'm sorry you dealt with it. (I thought I recalled someone on here having had it.)

I think that's actually one of the meds H is on? It's a combo of Valsartan (I think an Ace II inhibitor?) and a diuretic, which I believe is the Hctz (it's a long actual name, but saw it abbreviated like that). They confirmed gout visually today (said it was "angry") and did blood test for uric acid levels and I think a metabolic panel, I guess to check kidney/liver function?

H had a few beers on Wednesday and Saturday, but none the two days before the flare started (and he hasn't been drinking that often since the beginning of the year due to the hernia surgery). But maybe that mixed with the med? I guess if he's drinking less often, it could affect him more, too. He also said he thinks maybe he had this before but assumed it was from his shoes or something-this one is worse though.

So, we'll see... Thanks for sharing your experience with it.

Glad to hear it, Una!

Oh cuz beer is a diuretic too. Remember the two old guys and their wine coolers, i forget their names? Man those things ran thru me like wildfire. My mom would get them for my SIL's sister at family parties.

That's good news!

Was starting to type Bartles & Jaymes, then realized I think you meant guys drinking wine coolers...

The thing with my H is, he drinks *tons* of water (always has) and goes to the bathroom like once an hour (he went pretty frequently before the diuretic, too--his blood sugar has always been fine, incidentally, as I know that's a diabetes red flag). He said he because of all the water, it shouldn't be an issue. I said to him yesterday how he needs to be having electrolytes or the water will just go right through him. (I've read about this in migraine forums for myself.)

No thats right bartles and jaymes. Real men didnt drink wine coolers!

I have a potassium supplement prescribed with my diuretic, because i kinda od'd on salt at a chinese restaurant and got my heart rate up to 112, i did not like that!

Every hour would be a lot for me. I take my diuretic every 3rd day. The first 3 hours are like every half hour, then it slows down, then im back to every few hours. That must be brutal for him. Maybe some pedialyte to balance his electrolytes? His blood pressure is okay? Not getting dizzy?

Yeah, I was on triamterene and hydrochlorothiazide. I think stopdog mentioned that as well. Must be a pretty common culprit in gout flareups.

If someone says they'll contact you later in the day, what time frame is that? Is before 6pm a reasonable expectation?

I think it depends? If it's someplace that keeps set hours, like a medical doctor's office, then I'd think that, 5 or 6 p.m. But if it's, say, a friend or else a therapist (who contacts outside of office hours, which I know yours does), then I'd say more like by 8 or 9.

To clarify, I think 6 pm is reasonable to think when someone says that, but it may not be what they meant, if that makes sense.

One of the NYT Connections game categories today was Ilk.

Una i've seen that clip with the child before, it's cute how happy and appreciative he is.

@LostOnTheTrail I hope it's ok to post this. I am interested in your recent posting on the Dear T thread about a therapist becoming an inanimate object who can be leant on for support. I am interested in this idea because I have experienced similar feelings about my previous therapist - wanting her to be inanimate in the form of a kind of figurine or mannequin. However, I have always understood my desire for this as something unsavoury (as much as any of this kind of stuff is unsavoury, what does that even mean?) and linked to control, silencing, something anti-relational. So, when you described this as something supportive, I was really interested as it seems a very different sense to mine. Would you be prepared to say a bit more, either here or PM? I don't mean in terms of grief or anything about your private experiences, but more about how you experience the therapeutic relationship in the context of inanimate objects. Obviously, no problem if not!

Hi Comrade,

I've replied via PM.

oh man I'm feeling stressed today. more changes at work have me feeling like I just need to quit my job and go be a walmart greeter or something. my feeble old brain can't keep up. h wants me to sell a chunk of the stock i have in the company i work for and he's pressuring me to do it on my lunch break and also wants help with changing his work insurance and i about had to tell him to **** off because my brain is imploding due to the work changes i can't do anything else right now.

*hugs* Artie,

I'm sorry you're dealing with so much right now.
I really appreciate Heather Plett's take on mental overload...four simple words

"I am at capacity."

More socially acceptable than the four letter words, at least.

I hope your day improves,

Lost

Depends on the person. Depends on what is going on in their life. I give businesses (even a therapist or medical professional) at least 24 hours to reply. If it’s urgent, I don’t email; urgency is a direct phone call. Even when someone says “later in the day,” I give them grace to perhaps be forgetful; it happens. Life can be busy.

I agree - I tend to think in terms of 24 to 48 hours if not a clear emergency situation.