When you first found out, did you know anybody else who had gout at that point?

I’m not sure whether I was aware of anyone – I might have just heard it in passing, but it was only once I was diagnosed that I then discovered other people who had been diagnosed and then people really, you know, when they discover, “Oh, you’re a fellow gout sufferer. It’s sort of like join the club and let’s share stories.” A bit like war wounds, I guess, I don’t know. Yeah [laughs].

Is that because you were mentioning you had gout and then it came out in conversation? Or do you think you were just sort of more alert to the possibility of, you know, hearing other people mentioning it?

I think a combination of the two. I think that because I had heightened awareness one then sort of pricks up ones ears and, and sort of takes – or asks questions that you wouldn’t otherwise ask. But I think also that having struggled – I must have almost struggled for a month before it was diagnosed and I guess for some people that’s probably a very short time. I think it’s quite likely that some people might struggle a whole lot longer before it being diagnosed. But because of the struggle and the pain and here I was, a physically active person now limping, unable to wear closed shoes, you know, then probably people also noticed and asked questions. So I think it was a combination of both heightened awareness but also the experience, and then other people empathising and then one makes the connections, as it were.

When you were told that you did have gout, what was your reaction at the time? How did you feel?

Well I was really surprised because it wasn’t something that I had any familiarity with and theres always a part of it that you sort of thinks of the old wives’ tale of gout as to do with drinking too much. So one feels a little concerned that people might judge you around drinking too much alcohol and, you know, that it’s something to do with that, because it really has those – what do you call it? What’s the word for it? Connotations, yeah. There are the connotations that it’s something to do with overindulgence, too much red wine, too much red meat, red nose, that sort of thing. So I, I guess I felt a little discomfort about it.

It felt much worse than any cramp I’d ever had and it was in the arch of my foot. And so much so that the next day I couldn’t really walk well and my foot started to swell. So it carried on a little bit for, you know, a couple more nights of the same thing, this really acute pain, and I decided eventually to go to the GP. And the GP looked at my foot and the first GP that I saw, and this was now closer to Christmas, so it started early December. This was closer to Christmas. So I didn’t see my normal GP and the GP that I saw said, “If you weren’t a woman, I would say this is gout.” And, and I thought, “Ah, no, it can’t be,” because I had in my mind all of the old wives’ tales that we have in our minds about gout. And also I don’t drink excessively and all of the things that people associate with gout. And so I didn’t initially take that throwaway comment that seriously.