Monday, August 23. One year of blog posts about how not to get gout attacks.

Hard to believe, this is blog post number 365. It has certainly been a journey. I have learned a lot - but not lost any weight, and triggered a gout attack. I had forgotten how much it hurts. Should motivate me to
continue helping others, but the feedback here on the web is scant to say the least, and on Facebook people either want to gripe, or they try to contradict what I say, even if they are patently wrong. Well, not all of them. About half the interactions I have with people on Facebook are people thanking me for the answers, which feels good. And I have invested almost $1000 in test strips, lancets, and this web site. And, to be fair, purine-free beer. Not to speak of the time.
The time is the biggest cost. I have put in at least 30 minutes each day on the website, plus 30 minutes on Facebook and 30 minutes on research. That is 547.5 hours - a fairly big chunk of life. If I got paid 8 dollars per hour (you get better paid in the register at 7-11), I would have had 4380 dollars. That is a lot of money.
I will have to re-think seriously if it is worth it. Perhaps I will just publish my book about how to manage your gout, and then see how it sells. Now I am stuck with this website for another year, so we will see how long I want to keep it up.
​Todays weather and temperature: Great weather, sunshine and not too hot.
Current stress level (scale from 1 (low) to 5 (high)): 4
Breakfast: Rice and miso soup
Lunch: Remaining miso soup and a sandwich.
Snack: Nuts and crackers.
Dinner: Megaburrito
Todays supplements and dosage: 6 fish oil capsules, 4 garlic capsules, 1.5 liter hibiscus tea.
Todays UA reading (before breakfast): 7.9 mg/dL
Todays step count (total at bedtime): 2518 steps
How much did I drink today?: Coffee 0.5 liter, tea 1.5 liter, water 1 liter.
This weeks weight: 119.4 kg. There went all the gains I made. Looks like I need tougher measures to actually drop some kilos.
​Waist circumference: I do not dare to measure.
Heart rate before bedtime (read more here to see why it matters): 89 bpm
Blood pressure before bedtime (read more here to see why it matters): 124/93 mmHg
How many times did I go to the toilet today? #1 6 times, #2 2 times
My urine pH this morning (for why this matters, read more here): 6
Was my urine strange in any way? No
How many minutes did I use the Sixpad Foot Fit Plus? 10
Days since my last gout attack: 2
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