Osteoarthritis of the hip.

I have osteoarthritis of the Hip. I was diagnosed back in December but was misdiagnosed 18 months before. This has now left me needing a new hip as as opposed to a refacing operation. I can honestly say that some days I just want to sit in the corner and cry because I find the pain truly unbearable.

Being 45 I have been told I am too young for THR and to, and I quote. "soldier on with a conservative line of treatment"!!! The only time I am pain free is lying on my back. The pain killers I have send my head spinning. I had been working for all my adult life and was on ESA for the last 6 months after the pain became unbearable and I was signed unfit by my doctor. I was getting help to change career and return to work in the future. After a work capability assessment I have been deemed fit to work and as a result no longer get the help I was getting under the ESA. Anyway that's my moaning out of the way.

Hello,

First of all - hat kind of doctor are you seeing? I have seen a rhuematologist and a ortho doctor. They both agreed that I have osteoarithis. So they sent my pain doctor the results,

I have Osteoarthritis in both hips plus in every joint of my body. I see a Doctor that is in a Pain Management Group. There is relief for this. It is called - Radio Frequency, First what they do is 2 tests on the hip. They inject you with medicine that relieves the pain for about 6 hours and you log what you did and what your pain score was at. Then if you received at 80 - 90 percent relief they do another one. If you get the same results then they can do the Radio Frequency. What they do in go in and numb the nerves in that area. It last from 6 months to 2 years. My first one lasted 1 1/2 Years. Then the next one lasted 1 yr. But to have that relieve is awesome.

The other thing they could do is give you some Predisone. But that is just a fix that goes away once you stop taking them. Some times after you stop taking the predisone the pain stays away for a little while.

But now they changed my insurance and because I have to pay so much of the testing I can not afford it. I know exactly how you feel. But you need to rest more then anything. But you still need to get up now and then or you will be just as sore as you are now.

I hope this has helped and good luck to you.

Seems we're all having an uphill battle at a time when we're really not up to it.Thankyou so much for your replies.Let's hope we all get the help we need before it's too late.

HI,

Keep calling them. I do not wait for them to call me. And when I had those shots I was sedated. That even helped with the pain too.

Hope it works out for you....

Hi

Yeah I get upset with the insurances too. My doctor can prescribe medications and the insurance questions it It gets ridiculous.

Hope it works out soon for you

Hi,

My local GP suggested that Pain Management was only for people who suffered with depression about their situation (with pain from osteo and fibromyalgia) and as I happen to be a person with a positive disposition, and would rather laugh than give way and cry, this would not be of any help to me as it was mainly counselling. I'm surprised to hear that Pain Management in the true sense does still exist. Every bit of info helps, so thanks Linniebur, I'll raise the subject again with the GP as my next consultant appointment isn't for another 6 months. I've got to the point where I think umpteen times before going out into my garden to do a little pruning and dead heading because the pain is governing my life and I'm fed up with it. Prednisolone and pain killers just aren't doing it for me anymore and I want to take control again, At 69 I feel too young to be put on the scrap heap, there's too much I want and need to do. Moan over, thanks for listening. Best of luck with everything. Hope your situation improves soon. xx

Hi misschrissie. I was diagnosed with Osteoarthritis of the hip on Wednesday 8th July. 2 days ago. In one respect I was happy to hear what was wrong with me because now I finally know what it is, I can get on and deal with it. 'It is what it is'. In another respect, I was sad. I am 55 years old and sport has been and still is a massive part of my life. I spent most of my life playing rugby and at 50 I took up martial arts. Last year I graded and passed my 1st Dan black belt. I started feeling pain in my right hip about a year ago.

I pretty much ignored the pain and put it down to my rigorous training routine. I was doing martial arts six days a week and fitting in gym three times a week. I thought I had a slight pull in my muscles at the top of my leg. If you can imagine looking down on a cross section of your right leg as a clock face, the pain area was from 7 o'clock around to

1 o'clock. Some day I would hardly feel any pain and other days I was struggling to walk. In fact I would walk with a bit of a limp. Sometimes I would put my weight on my right leg and would feel a very sharp pain and my leg would almost give way.

The simple task of putting on socks on my left leg would be a struggle. Like anything life throws at us, you learn to adapt and deal with it.

Three months ago I saw my GP. The process was to see a physio at the hospital. After 4 visits to the physio and doing all the exercises she gave me, there was no change. I was then recommended to have an x-ray. For this I had to go back to my GP who then sent me back to the hospital for the X-ray. Ten day later back to the GP and hey ho, Osteoarthritis.

I will now learn to deal with the pain trying to take a bare minimum of pain killers, finding the techniques that work best for me going around my daily activities such as putting on my socks :). I have a final appointment with my physio on the 22nd of this month. I will go prepared with 50 questions and find exactly what exercises I can and can't do with the aim of continuing my martial arts and gym.

I hope this helps misschrissie. It's so important to know what you have and then you can work with it. Best wishes to you.

Thank you so much for your reply.Sorry to hear it's osteoarthritis.You sound like you've got the right idea to get on and try to help yourself as much as possible.As yet I really don't know what my problem is.Have at last got an appointment at the orthopedic hospital for Monday.Hopefully they can at least diagnose my problem and then I can try and help myself as much as possible.Everything is such a struggle at the moment and walking is pure agony.Frightening how life can change so suddenly isn't it ! I wish you well and good luck at the physio.

Good Luck and the very best wishes for Monday misschrissie. Let me know how you get on.

Hi MissChrissie it sounds to me like hip burstitis, how did you get on with your appointment? Hopefully it's not arthritis, I've just found this site, it's really nice to see posts from others who are going through similar Symtoms and can offer advice so keep smiling

Hello I have been told via a phone call from the go this Wednesday that I have osteoarthritis in my hip. I started going to the dr so long ago I can't remember with my thighs aching. Was told it's probably stress. I wake through the night with the pain and it's like a constant ache, toothache from hell. So then I am having a pain in the back, sometimes my bum and it's a ache my knees have started to really hurt too. My husband asked me if I won the lottery what would I do. I said I would ask a dr to help me as I can't take anymore of sleepless nights. He said go to the dr anyway. I went was given ibrufen and co codomol. I told the dr I think I have pulled s muscle in my leg as. Keep getting a shooting pain in the leg when I move n Certain positions. This dr examined me and moved my right leg and foot felt OK. He then did the same to the left leg, ohh I nearly hit the ceiling and my left foot would not move to the left. He then said I think it is your hip. I told him I don't have pain in the hip just my leg. So straight away he sent me to hospital for blood tests, the xray. One week later I am told its osteoarthritis. Dr said on phone you have mild, moderate, and severe osteoarthritis and you have moderate to severe. What shall I do I said take the ibrufen he said and co codomol. I said I have but the aches and pain is now awful in the day as well as night. I was strong insisted I need help with it. So he prescribed tramadol. I took one at 9 am yesterday felt OK but ache was in the distance and then took one at one. I decided I would take one at 9 last night and one at ten thirty when I went to bed. I have to say I had from about 11pm to 5.40am the most sleep I've had in months. I think you have to go to dr and ask for the xray or scan as I've been fibbed off for ages and now feel that I should of pushed more for it to be investigated as I would of not had so many sleepless nights. Good luck xx

Hello Misschrissie

I can sympathise with the way you feel and the pain you must be in.

I have severe Osteoarthiritis of my right hip which started about 2 years ago with pain in my groin, and soon after that it went downhill, with pain on the righthand side and as you described in the right buttock but feel it now all around the joint aswell as it henetates pain towards my thigh and top leg part.. I cant take any Naproxen anti inflammatory as I am on warfarin and have a pacemaker... I am 65 but they dont want to do a hip replacement as my BMI is too high and aftet Zapain and Tramadol the max qty made me feel sick and am on Morphine slow release and morphine liquid as a topup when needed.. The pain on the dose of morphine is still there in the background but it took the edge off it a bit, but the constant clicking drives me nuts and am crawling around with a walking aid.. which is quite depressing especially having lost most of my mobility.

They say keep moving, but it is like a viscious circle as all you want to do is sit down in one position which hurts the least, an they seem to have tablets for everything like anti depressants as I feel down dealing with it all from being in a good active job reduced to a walking wreck on disability.

I hope you feel a bit better on medication and know what you are going through/,,,,

Take Care!