25 years of temporary, migrating mild to severe pain in feet, ankles, knees is Gout

About every 6 months for the past 25 years, I've experienced mild to severe pain in my feet, ankles or knees. Rarely the same one. It was some sort of inflamatory process that would last a week or so and would generally resolve itself and be gone by the time I saw a Doctor. Good prescription orthotics helped my feet, but never solved the general problem. Over the years I've been blood tested, MRI'd, x-rayed manipulated and re-habbed for everything/anything, including gout (which nobody ever thought it was, because mine was never in my toes). This past year the pain settled in my left knee and did not go away, which at least gave me the motivation to pursue a new round of tests. I finally got to a Rheumatologist who took fluid out of my knee and looked at the fluid for crystals, which he found. So it's now a simple matter of a safe med and watching what I eat and drink. Wish I knew 25 years ago but better late than never. If you have similar symptons, have fluid looked at. The biggest problem has been that the pain would interrupt exercise for a couple weeks, putting me back to zero.

I am also a long time gout sufferer with the pain constantly moving anywhere from the knees on down to my toes. 98% of my suffering was alleviated by total abstinence from alcohol. Now when I get a flareup (much more mild and short term) I am able to resolve the problem with extra attention to hydration and diet. In my case, diet adaptations are more about not eating salty foods as the salt screws up my hydration levels. These days, the only pain management required is 1-2 doses of advil.

I have been dealing with about ten years of gout "post alcohol" Before I stopped drinking, the pain was chronic, daily pain which would lapse into debilitating pain. Since I stopped drinking, flareups are very rare and I can only think of one time in ten years where gout has affected my daily activity level. I actually had a flareup this weekend, awakened at 4am with ankle pain. I drank a quick 1/2 gallon of water, took 3 advil and by sunrise I was feeling much better. The same day, I took a 3 mi walk in the woods and later did a 5k charity walk-no problem.

thanks for that input, Lost Dad. Wish I knew then what I do know now.