ITK, gout and arthritis are related. Both can be totally debilitating and so painful that suicide seems a reasonable reaction. Luckily, for most people (and once you have some experience with it, fellow gout sufferers will come out of the woodwork) there is a daily pill that can prevent attacks (alopurin or something like that). If hubby falls down on the drinking 2 qts of water a day or forgets the pills for more than a couple of days, it comes back. My father had a couple of bouts and also is on the daily pill regimin, as is a freind who is an artist and gets it in his hands, and a young freind. It is sometimes hard to convince older people and men to drink all that water, but you have to flush the uric acid from your body.
Other forms of arthritis are harder to deal with. One of the ladies I read to is completely housebound from it, and again, I have a much younger friend who suffers from it badly enough that her spouse couldn't stand the stress of having such a sickly wife (she takes daily shots). Many, if not most, people suffer from some form of arthritis as they get older, but when it gets so severe it really makes life not worth living for some people. My older lady friend tells me that me coming up and reading to her a couple times a week is what gets her through some weeks, so when I feel too lazy to do it, I pick myself up and get my sorry butt on the road.
