Shirley Y

Age at interview: 78

Brief Outline: Shirley was diagnosed with gout in her late 60s, after having other forms of arthritis since she was 27. She managed the attacks with ice packs and painkillers. Since having an operation to remove a lump from her toe joint she has had less pain.

Background: Shirley is married and lives with her husband. She has two children. She is retired, and previously worked as a Legal Secretary. Ethnic background/nationality: White English.

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Shirley was diagnosed with arthritis at the age of 27 after she had her first baby. This became worse and she was eventually also diagnosed with gout in her late 60s.
 
Her GP told her not to drink alcohol and not to eat red meat but she didn’t find the advice helpful as she didn’t do either of these things. She used the internet to try and find information but didn’t find much that was helpful, apart from advice on using ice packs to help with pain.
 
Her husband was very supportive but she only knew one person with gout and would have liked to talk to other people to compare feelings and solutions. She wanted her GP to send her to a pain management clinic but was told that she didn’t take enough tablets for this, which she found frustrating. She didn’t want to take allopurinol, as prescribed by her GP, because of possible side effects and because she already takes a lot of pills. She just used painkillers to deal with the attacks, starting with ibuprofen, then coproxamol, then arcoxia.
 
She used to have attacks of gout about twice a year which had an impact on her life, for example, having to cancel theatre visits or having to stay in the hotel room when on holiday.
 
After 10 years of attacks lasting a week to ten days, she developed a painful lump on her toe joint. This lump meant that she couldn’t wear her shoes and found it difficult to do the things she enjoyed, such as going on excursions when she went on cruises.
 
She had the lump removed but her foot took a long time to heal after the operation. Since the operation she gets some twinges of pain and some pain in her other foot, but nothing as severe as previously. She takes painkillers for other arthritic conditions. Shirley also has severe anaemia which requires regular hospital visits and takes priority over her other conditions at the moment.
 
She doesn’t really talk to her GP about gout. She feels that GPs are not sympathetic and don’t think it is as serious as some other conditions. 

Shirley found that ice helped with the pain. Walking also relieved it for a while.

Oh when it’s reached a peak it’s awful. Very, very painful. I’ve put ice cubes on it and my daughter bought me a little sort of sock thing that you keep in the freezer and stick it on the end of your foot. That was very good. Ice was the best. 

One thing I did find, if you, if you could carry on walking it did tend to disperse it slightly. The more you used your foot it sort of spread it. And then of course you always had to go back into bed with the duvet and that hurt.

Shirley’s had to cancel outings and gout affected her trip to New York to see her daughter

It’s stopped me - I’ve had to cancel sort of any outings and we had theatre tickets which I hadn’t been able to use because I couldn’t sit there, having this throbbing away. Quite a few things that we didn’t get done because of that and also we - our daughter lives in New York and we go there once a year and that, and that had to be sort of curtailed - afternoons where I’ve just stayed in the hotel with ice again. And yes it has encroached on me, it has. But, you know, as I said, you get through it.

Shirley Y thinks it is funny that she has gout and is not a ‘rich man’.

What do you think about the fact that gout is often referred to, or thought of, as a rich man’s disease? 

I know, I think it’s funny because I’m not a rich man … I think it’s quite amusing - what goes on in your bloodstream can’t really be the coffers can it? Can’t be all the money in your pockets. No I don’t know, I don’t have a particularly highly charged lifestyle, not at my age. All I do, I mean I like playing Bridge and that doesn’t really … you don’t eat much really, really all it does for you, playing Bridge, is raises your blood pressure.

Shirley felt that it would make a big difference if doctors were more understanding and sympathetic towards people with gout.

Well I think they could perhaps be a bit more understanding of it. And sympathetic I think. I know that doctors have an awful lot to deal with and I know they can’t all be sympathetic to you but it makes a big difference. I listen to the radio, last night there was a call in talking to this doctor, and people were phoning in for various things and he was so sympathetic and I thought, “Why can’t I have a doctor like that?” So there is such a thing as sympathy.