What is culcchine?
Colchicine is the spelling that will get you hits for the drug in question.It is a fairly harsh medication that is used to stop a gout attack. It isnot recommended as a long term treatment.
It certainly sounds as if you are experiencing an attack of gout based onyour prior message. In order to conclusively determine whether you havegout, you must have a doctor take a sample of the fluid in the affectedjoint. If crystals have formed in the joint, they will be able to sayconclusively that you are suffering from gout.
What can you do right now?1. Absolutely stay off the joint in question. Moving around on it with anongoing attack can damage the joint permanently. It can also make theattack worse or prolong the attack.2. Drink plenty of water to try to help flush the uric acid out of yoursystem and to hydrate yourself well to decrease the overall concentration ofthe chemicals involved in the precipitation of the crystals.3. See a rheumatologist ASAP. They will likely prescribe a non-steroidalanti-inflamatory drug (NSAID) like indomethacin to take down theinflammation and provide some pain relief. They might prescribe colchicinewhich may stop the attack, but which you may not tolerate very well. Theywill probably not prescribe Allopurinol until you are no longer experiencingan attack, as it could make the attack worse. However, there are differingopinions about this.4. Find out if your current medicines might be contraindicated if you havegout.5. In the short term, avoid alcohol, shellfish, fish, red meat,beans/lentils, broccoli/cauliflower, mushrooms, and maybe evenchocolate/coffee/caffeine. (basically foods that contain purines orfoods/drugs that impair your metabolic processes)
Once you are past the attack you can decide with your doctor orrheumatologist how best to manage your gout in the long term. There are alot of people on this list that can help by experiences with the variousdrugs and other treatments for gout.
Sabina Shamel on September 3rd, 2007
A few things to add1. Stop eating anything with protein for at least 3 days. You canlive on white rice if you have to and although it isn’t appetizing,it does work well.2. Water, water and then when you are full of water drink some morewater.3. Add lemon juice, vinegar and vitamin C, all acidic components thatwill retard the blood level of urate.4. Get some culcchine, however it is spelled and some strong NSAIDand you will get past your first real attack and remember that thereis a 99 chance out of 100 that it will come back and worse the nexttime.
Get tested and get on allopurinol if your system can tolerate it.