Chronic Gouty Arthritis with Tophi

by Kerry
(Peyton, Colorado)

My brother is suffering from one of the worst cases of gout that most of his physicians have ever seen. Granted he has lived with an alcohol issue most of his life that became worse with the stress of a broken marriage with a very hateful and vendictive woman that also yanked his only child out of his life only to alienate her as well. He has lost his job because of the severity of the gout (he has been deemed disabled)he is about to lose his work licenses and drivers licenses because of the inability to pay child support, he is fighting to keep his home due to no job to pay his mortgage and other bills, I could go on and on about how stressfull and hopeless his life is at this point. He says he has quit drinking, but it is too little too late. He has become suicidal and I have run to his home numerous times to keep him from doing the deed. He is on Alapurinal and Cholchisine but the side effects from both are almost intolerable and don't seem to be doing any good anyway. He tries to eat properly for the condition but to no avail as far as getting his uric acid level down to a healthy one. His level was 7.4 in January after an 8 day hospital stay that also involved surgery on one of his elbow to remove necrotic tissue and severe infection due to tophi. He has severe tophi growths on his feet, knees, ankles and hands.He had the uric acid level checked the other day and it had gone up to 9.6! What in the world can we do if anything? He was going to start some surgeries the 1st of March to start removing the huge tophi growths, but they cannot consider surgery until his level is down to 6 or lower. We are starting to think it is impossible to get it at a healthy level, Please, does anyone have any suggestions?!!!