Paula’s Story: Already Taking ULORIC
Paula Age 52: "I help manage my gout with ULORIC."
Paula’s Gout Treatment Plan:
When Paula developed gout, she changed her eating habits. For a while, she depended on aspirin to manage the pain. Finally, Paula’s daughter convinced her to make an appointment with her healthcare professional. When tests showed that Paula’s uric acid level was 8.7 mg/dL, she was prescribed ULORIC. Since then, ULORIC has helped get her uric acid to a healthy level (less than 6 mg/dL). Individual results may vary.
What Paula Knows:
The root cause of gout is high uric acid levels in the blood. If you have gout, high uric acid buildup can lead to more attacks. Keeping your uric acid level low (less than 6 mg/dL) is the
goal for long-term management of gout. By taking ULORIC each day, you're taking an important step on the path toward achieving this goal.
If you’ve been taking ULORIC for awhile, you may find it encouraging to check on your progress toward a lower uric acid level. Ask your healthcare professional about having your uric acid level checked occasionally. After all, it’s one thing to know you may be on the way to lowering your uric acid level to less than 6 mg/dL…it’s another thing to see it at work.
Once you’ve achieved a measure of control over uric acid, you may be tempted to stop taking ULORIC. But gout is a chronic condition, which means it doesn’t go away. Keeping your uric acid level low is important since gout attacks can be caused by high uric acid buildup in your blood. And, just as you may have a flare when starting treatment, quitting uric acid-lowering treatment, or taking them sporadically, can lead to a recurrence of gout attacks as well! So, keep taking your ULORIC according to your healthcare professional’s instructions.
What to Expect When Taking ULORIC
- Be sure to take ULORIC as your healthcare professional tells you—once a day, every day—with or without food.
- Your gout may flare up when you start taking ULORIC. This may be due to crystals beginning to dissolve in your joints as your uric acid level goes down.
- If you have a flare while taking ULORIC, do not stop taking your medicine.
- Your healthcare professional may tell you to take other medicines to help prevent or manage flares during initial treatment.
- The most common side effects of ULORIC are liver problems, nausea, gout flares, joint pain, and rash.
- Tell your healthcare professional if you develop a rash, have any side effect that bothers you, or that does not go away.
- Your healthcare professional may do blood tests to check your liver function while you are taking ULORIC.
Already Taking ULORIC? What Next?
In addition to continuing to take ULORIC to help control your uric acid level, to further help manage your gout, you should discuss a treatment plan with your healthcare professional, which may include:
- Maintaining a healthy lifestyle and diet, which is an important part of managing your overall health
- Having your uric acid level checked occasionally as directed by your healthcare professional
- Remembering the importance of a low uric acid level (less than 6 mg/dL)
You may also be interested in the ULORIC Savings Card. With the ULORIC Savings Card, eligible patients will pay no more than $35*, subject to a maximum benefit of $100, for ULORIC prescriptions and each refill until March 31, 2013. Just take your ULORIC Savings Card with you when you get your prescription filled and present it to the pharmacist.
In addition to getting these savings, you will also be enrolled in the GoutSmart program, a personalized educational series of e-newsletters that allows you to select topics that most appeal to you.
Save on prescriptions* and stay informed with GoutSmart.
*Must meet eligibility requirements.