People with gout often have other health issues, such as being overweight, or having diabetes, having high cholesterol, or having kidney disease, and so it’s important to look for and treat those conditions in people with gout.

People with gout are also more likely to have problems like heart attacks and strokes, and so because of that we monitor people with gout and keep an eye on blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, so sometimes people with gout are asked to go for health checks in their GPs which they may not otherwise be asked to go for.

I asked my doctor to do a blood test, and the uric acid came back high. And because I had symptoms, he started me on a low dose of allopurinol. Sometime later, I had another test and it was still quite high so he did in the end put me on 300mg of allopurinol, which I’m still on, and I’ve taken ever since. I have had periodic tests, and it’s relatively normal range.

I do ask the doctor to do me a sort of fairly regular blood test, about once a year at least. And I just like to keep an eye on it.

It sometimes causes confusion that when uric acid levels are measured during an attack of gout, they can come back as low or normal. The reason for this is that, at times when theres a lot of inflammation around in the body such as during an attack of gout the kidneys actually pass more uric acid out into the urine, which means that the level in the blood drops. So the most important message from this is that if somebody is thought to have gout, but they are found to have a low or normal uric acid level during an attack of gout, the blood test should be repeated when the attack has settled down.

Are you aware of whether you’re having any regular monitoring in relation to your gout now?

I don’t know in relation to the gout, but I have very regular monitoring. So I think they would pick up anything untoward. I mean I do have six-monthly blood tests, which seem to pick up on just about anything, so…

So, do you know whether your uric acid levels are being, sort of?

I think occasionally they have looked at them. I don’t know whether they do it specifically. And I’ve just had a blood test, I ought to have said [laughs], Check the uric acid while you’re about it.

I probably was a bit worried at the time because you know for loads of medicines that I was taking, I was thinking that there would be an effect on my body as well, so I asked them really that, For all these kind of medicines that I am taking is it still safe? then they told me that, Yeah, it’s still safe because we are giving you very safe medicines for your illness. And that’s why they just – every time that I went to – every time I go to them, they always check my – check my – my liver functions, my kidney functions, so that they will make sure that – because even the rheumatologist gave me a joke that, at the moment you’re still doing okay [laughs].

I listened to a programme actually about gout, it seems to be there, and somebody was saying that one of the criticisms of the medical profession is that they don’t monitor peoples uric acid levels. Interestingly, I’ve only had my uric acid level done once all the time I’ve had gout. I’ve had diagnoses of gout, but I’ve only had it done once. So you tend to think about it which one of the criticisms of the medical profession is – well how do you know what you’re treating when you don’t monitor it? I’ve not been monitored. As I say, I’ve had it done once, which seems to be, when I listened to the programme, probably one more time than most people. It’s just done on I think because the signs and symptoms are so obvious that people assume that you’ve got gout. I think last time I did have a conversation with a GP who thought he excluded septic arthritis because he thought and took my temperature and said that was a diagnostic answer if it was septic arthritis or gout, but I have been examined without taking anything off, my shoes and socks off. I’ve been told I’ve had gout without anybody looking [laughs] and didn’t seem to be interested in where it was. Because I’ve actually, I’ve talked about it being in my feet, but I’ve actually also got it in my hands. Not as much, but I’ve got it especially in the joints of my left thumb. No-one has ever, ever, ever asked me about it.