Faces of gout: Kyle C.

One in 10 people with kidney disease has gout, and an even higher percentage of people with gout have kidney disease. To learn more about the connection between kidney disease and gout, visit the American Kidney Fund's Goutful campaign at KidneyFund.org/gout. Goutful education content is made possible by Horizon Therapeutics. Below is a letter patient Kyle C. wrote to the medical community detailing the impact gout has had on his life.

Dear medical community,

I was a person suffering with gout symptoms and flare-ups prior to my kidney failure diagnosis.

Gout is something that would flare up out of nowhere, very unexpectedly, and prevent me from getting out of bed some days or require me to rely on a crutch to move about while taking pain medication like NSAIDS. The pain can be excruciating. When my flare-ups would occur when others were at home, sometimes they can assist me with mobility or getting things to make it more comfortable to stay in bed.

On days where no one was around, I would be stuck in bed on my own all day until someone came home — work and other planned life activities would stop.

Typically, the medical community does not wish for patients to look and research for answers on our own, however, I was not able to get a diagnosis or treatment with existing doctors for my gout until I did research on my own and took it back to my new team of doctors post my kidney failure diagnosis. I learned that NSAIDs and side effects of certain medications I was prescribed may not have helped my gout symptoms. I also learned certain foods to avoid which may contribute to gout symptoms to occur less frequently for me. I also learned about uric acid build-up which may occur with not yet diagnosed kidney disease.

I wish to let the medical community know that sometimes it's helpful to work with patients in a collaborative manner to find the answers for treatments and not just rely on a checklist of existing symptoms and NSAIDs as treatment. Help patients look for other possible undiagnosed health issues to test for.

Thank you!

- Kyle C.