Man up

And whatever 'ER' you're going to, I dunno, I would think that unless you are crashing, I would consider just waiting for your regular doctor in the morning.

You read my mind.   Unless I'm bleeding out I'm going to drive to the regular hospital in the city  

The local hospital here, closest one to me in Fayetteville, I would not willingly bring my dog to.  I've told my wife "When I am having my heart attack and minutes count, drive me to Springdale."

In reply to Dr. Hess :

Luckily I live near the twin cities so many good hospitals are available. Just not in this podunk little town   

Worse comes to worse, mayo is about 2 hours away  

And I'm getting my knee drained again.  Orthopedic says some arthritis. Minor meniscus tear. Nothing for surgery but watch it and pt whe n I can move again. Still could be gout. Rawr

got bronchitis..   Thanks to my immune system being depressed by prednisone.

Knee much better, but still swollen and painful.    Tried using an exercise bike to help strengthen it... 5 minutes of that and the knee didn't like that idea and swelled up again..

I've basically been sick and limping for a month now....  this has got to end.

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

That kind of sucks. Bronchitis drains all the energy out of you. My wife ends up with it every couple of years and it knocks her down for weeks. 

Here's to hoping you are feeling better soon. 

6 month ish update...

I've been on 600mg of Allopurinol for nearly 6th months. Here are the pro's and cons so far of my gout treatment In MBA bullet point style:..

•  I was orignally on 300mg of Allopurinol, but it didn't do the trick to lower my uric acid levels to the right amount so the Doctor up'd the dosage.  This was very rough around the January time frame.  current Uric acid levels are 4.4 mg/dl
• I spent most of January on Crutches as my right knee was gigantic and didn't like bending much.  It was better by the end of January beginngin of Feb, but took most of the month of Feb to become usable.
• I started PT on the knee in April..  Seems to be much better,  I'm now working out 3 days a week.. Win.
• After going on Allopurinol, the Flares were near constant for 4 months. I was on daily Cholcrys.  Minor Win, I now need like 1 per week at most.
• Liver tests are coming in with a high ALT...  two now conistently.  Not concerning the Rheumetologist said.. Maybe some Fatty liver..   I need to now go for an ultrasound. 
• Kindey tests Creatinine are also a bit high..  Need to retest that.
• What I now know to be tophi that were growing out of my left foot have stopped and shrunk to being nearly gone  still a minor bump under the skin, but its still going down.
• The foot pain I was hainvg for years has diminished greatly to be now almost gone.  I've had crazy diagnoses on all types of things wrong mechanically with my feet.  I coulnd't go 2 days without insoles and just an incredible amount of pain, but just did 8 miles a day in Disney in Flip flops... So good stuff there.
• The Rhemuthologist is talking about reducing the Allo dose.. I hope we can do that soon... My wife is having large ammounts of anxiety about my tests.  

Glad to hear it’s moving in the right direction! Hope the tests come back normal. 

In reply to Fueled by Caffeine :

There is a scientific explanation for this "phenomenon". It's called a cytokine storm. There are other related factors, such as redheads being more sensitive to cold and tooth pain. Part of it is genetics, part of it is the difference in endocrine systems between males and females. The flip side is that redheads generally also have a higher overall pain threshold and can handle a greater background level of pain, like back or joint pain.

Couple year update. 
 

400mg a month allopurinol now.  Current Utica acids level is 5.3 which is right in the sweet spot for control  

x rays show no damage to my joints or bones

i can even have a beer or so when I want  just stay hydrated and don't over do it