Hi Jan,
Sorry to hear about your problem Janet.
Often we see arthritic stuff, and autoimmune stuff get better.
What I have seen is the medications cause a flare up of gout, and although this is typically seen in the big toe, and often only on one side, it can affect any joint so I would certainly have your serum urate level checked.
Certainly a checkup of you autoimmune markers and gout markers would be in order. Prednisolone works for both, and although the preference would be not to use it, we may have to consider it to damp things down. A short course should not adversely impact on treatment success.
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