My Gout Started When I Was Young

Published 5/30/2024 by Jacob Woodring

My story is quite unique. My gout started when I was young. It’s the year 2000 and I was on the brink of turning 14. My family had moved from Oregon back to California. We were living with my aunt and her two boys. My family and I were playing basketball outside when I suffered a sports injury.

That’s right, I suffered a sprained ankle in the pursuit of an easy layup. Normally a sprained ankle would sideline a preteen for a few days and at max a week, but the Gods had different plans for me.

My parents were wondering why the swelling in the ankle didn’t go down. We went to see a doctor and he told me to rest up and keep my foot in the air, the swelling will go down in a few days. A few days went by, and the swelling didn’t go away. 

My parents and I went back to the doctor’s office. The doctor gave the same advice, but this time the doctor ordered some blood work. 

Another day went by, and the doctor asked to have me back in his office. My parents were anxious and confused. All this fuss and headache over a sprained ankle. Once inside the doctor’s office he didn’t spare any time. “It’s odd, but your son has gout!” 

We were all confused, a 13-year-old with a senior citizen disease. The doctor showed my parents the blood test results, and I tested positive for hyperuricemia. The crystals in the blood were in fact gout and not pseudo gout. 

I didn’t care what I had as long as my swelling went down. After a few days, it did.

I entered my freshman year of high school not knowing that gout would get the best of me physically. My gout attacks were mostly in my feet and thumbs. I went from running a seven and a half minutes mile to twelve minutes my senior year. 

I never drank alcohol at the age of 13. Our food growing up was not super fatty, meaty or fried. My diagnosis came in the form of family inheritance and genetics. All at the same time and age, my two cousins were also diagnosed with gout.

I wish I can tell you that I was diagnosed in my forties or fifties, and I lived a very fruitful life, but no, I can’t. My diagnosis was just out of puberty. From the time I was thirteen to thirty-seven I couldn’t count how many gout attacks I had. I had one surgery to remove tophi deposit the size of a golf ball. 

In 2019 I was in a national medical trial for Krstexxa. It lasted for one whole calendar year. It was a temporary life changer. 

Now I am a college student at the age of 37 (a month shy of 38) and I’m trying to build a business off of my 24 years’ worth of experiences with gout. I want to share my time going to prom, my first job and dealing with bad doctors and the good ones. My life is an open book!

I’m a little jealous of the people with gout which had the diagnosis of the disease because they ate the wrong foods or drank too much alcohol. It’s those patients that had control of when they had the onset of gout come over them. My destiny was sort of planned out for me already. You can also say that my life was fully mapped out without my consent. 

My goal is to share my website full of stories, research and recommendations to make sure anyone with gout will not suffer as much as I did. I also have a YouTube channel where you can put a face to the words. 

(1) Thefamousjacob – YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfxqJmfuWADtczRnKZcb4WA

This is me! If I can get through cancer scares, surgeries and countless months stuck on a bed, I know that you can as well! You are not alone! You have found me and we will get through this disease together!