Over 50. years of pain, been though so many versions of pain relief, all levels of medication so many courses, physical exercise I done myself up like a rubber duck, laid on boards been on the rack, had radionics treatment, most to these are no longer fit for purpose as opinions change over the years, could any of these condemned practises done more harm than good. I get very immune very quickly now going though all the pain management courses, I am told I have reach the end of the line their is no more they can do for me, at present feeling really stressed sick in the stomach head aches, hot and cold at the same time and will be glad when Christmas is over. Hermes.
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Hermes123
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Hi Hermes123 I am sorry you are so unwell. Was it someone working at a pain clinic? Maybe they are right in terms of the pain clinic and their courses.
However you can still see a rheumatologist and get you're medication reviewed.
Personally I keep away from Exercise Physioligist and physiotherapists. Every time I've seen one I've ended up in agony for a week. I walk every day even though I can't walk very far. I also do Chi Kong and Tai Chi at home. Maybe this is something you could do too.
I hope you have a nice Christmas. Just remember that okay you are sick and,miserable right now but it will pass. I am in agony today due to something I did on Saturday. I am still putting on a happy face and going out to celebrate Christmas tonight with the family. Sometimes we just have to do this. All the best. Lola
Loarufus123 Thank you for you're response, I cannot tell how many times a rheumatologist has been mentioned in the past six months, but that is as far as it goes.
it's as if the hospital see's as a waste of time in my case.
Exercise is a problem due to balance, I have week ankles if I walk to far then my hips become painful. I do know what function the body needs but the body disagrees with me. Right now I get this sickness feeling in the pit of my stomach, make one feel as if your going to pass out, I had them before more serious that I have called an ambulance, this time its shorter but happens more frequently evening times are the worst.. I cannot wait to come out of it again. Thanks again for replying and a very Happy Christmas to you. Hermes.
Sounds like me about a year ago. Took drastic action and slowly weaned myself off DMARDs in about 3 months or so. Very risky!
My RA Specialist was not happy but seriously I could not function and had flares every month! After seeing the affect and improvement he agreed to prescribe a low dose of preds.
I was convinced I was going downhill with those meds. I am now on 5mg Prednisolone and able to cope most days, which I also hope to wean myself off soon.
Changed my diet completely (mostly greens), fast a day a week which makes me feel great and light exercise that strenthens the muscles around the pain areas, mainly my wrist. Have been without RA meds for nearing a year now. Don't know what thats going to do in the long run but I seriously lost faith in western medicine.
One of the things that I think helped (apart from many, to be honest that I tried, including lots of prayers of course) was believe it or not watching short funny clips on Youtube!
Anything to make me laugh 3 to 5 times a day!
My RA was stress/heartbreak related (I believe) and its hard to be happy or laugh when you are in pain, but the mind is capable of amazing things and so is the body, try it.
Hope it works for you too!
In terms of food I have a 5 page document of what I tried and what I cut out. Think its different for everyone...but noticed flares when I had milk, sugar and certain flour related products. Would love to be able to help, but everyone is different and reacts differently. Trust your instincts
Wishing you the best of everything. Hang in there and do not get disheartened.
This is Hermes 123 I hope you had a Happy Christmas, mine was pretty mundane as Christmas goes, but that you for you're comments, coming up to 81. years old I tried that many different diet programmes, exercises to the every day physio recommended to the bazar as recommended by teachers with so many claims, their idea is the best tried and tested century's old, I eat what a lot of what a lot of people call health foods, but I just like to call it food of people of the Mediterranean, I love salads eat a lot and soups but one ingredient missing regular sunshine. I have not found a supplement that works despite all the claims. Read books, medical papers that last s long as it's taken to write them. I've been pulled, stretched, twisted, swam, you name it they have tried it, but after a number of operations still constant pain on a daily biases and when flare up's happen sometimes like being set on fire, I can through years of experience put up with pain more than most, but times like over this Christmas one feels as if you have hit that brick, as no help in on hand, just being told sorry you're on maximum amount of drugs there is nothing else we can do for you, I feel I'm coming out of this one now, but it's its like going to hell and back. Rubina you take good care Happy New Year. Hermes.
Just finished watching youtu.be/G96U17hA-FI based on andyswarbs suggestion related to the paddisson program, it makes a lot of sense based on my personal experiences. It probably explains why I feel great when I fast. Yes there are many claims that I tried too, and without prednisolone the pain is back but not as severe. So am planning to try this juicing stuff a bit more diligently than I have done other "remedies" to achieve my goal to give up preds. (Did you ever get prescribed these?)
I don't celebrate Christmas but had some friends over and got carried away with Pizza yesterday so not feeling too good today! haha!
Still sticking to to no milk products, no flour, no milk.
A cup of green tea a day, and apple cider vinegar (with mother) mixed with honey and my funny cat videos
Keep praying and hoping and not letting RA bring you down. It thrives on our sadness!
Try the paddisson program, it worked for me. I was close to deaths door, now I am pain, inflammation free, no drugs and living a normal life, including no wheelchair.
Hi rubina786, I too Google up the paddisson articles last evening, he sounded like similar ones I had heard in the past, it might of work for you andyswarbs, what I would like to know Andy, how many years had you been suffering! 5o. plus years? my spine at present feels like a slab of ice along 3/4 of its length, my hands and fingers are burning with pain, despite having two operations on them, a few years ago the green lip muscle was all the rage at the time people swore by its properties, that soon died out as the bee all and end all, yes you can still buy it but not as popular as it once, I seen so many with such promises, Health bodies would soon track them down if they had any validity as it would save the NHS. £Millions. Lets hope a cure can soon be found for all. Happy New Year to all Hermes.
Hi Hermes123, my arthritis started in 1976, aged 23 as psoriatic arthropathy. At the time the doctors described me as having osteo in pretty well all joints but the most obvious were my legs. It started after a bike ride when I thought, "oh, I feel a bit stiff" and so I rested. By the next day I could not walk and was ambulanced to the hospital. I was given steroid injections on my knees, gold injections and after 6 months of physio I was able to walk again.
Things seemed pretty stable for the next 40 years. I was able to walk, play badminton & swim. The gold injections had stopped when they proved useless. Instead I took diclofenac tablets as needed, usually needing no more than a pack each year.
Then in 2015 it all changed for the worse. We had had emotional challenges of our daughter dying (aged 24) from epilepsy (sudep) (see forjane.co.uk if interested) in 2011 and it may be that I had not sorted that out. Nevertheless other emotional challenges such as my remaining son marrying and thus the hopeful prospect of a grandchild. I said to my wife, I cannot speak at my son's wedding party and asked her to do the honours. So clearly something was going on in my brain.
Whatever I had been having blood tests and clearly from May 2015 you can see my CRP began to climb. I was retired from work on grounds of ill health in November and was by that time unable to walk more than a few feet and always in excruciating pain.
In November I watch Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead movie (which is on youtube) and that inspired me to think that food could make a difference. I bought a juicer, gave up gluten and although I had modest improvements generally I was still going downhill.
January 2016 I found the Paddison Program, and was as sceptical as everyone else is - and should be. Meds (methotrexate) were not helping and my doctor just kept upping the dosage. I had nowhere to go and I thought I have got nothing to lose, absolutely nothing.
Before I started the Paddison Program (Easter) I did two days just water, and that was followed by two days of cucumber and celery juice, the official starting gun for the program. I simply could not believe what I was feeling. After two days, just two days mind you my pain levels dropped a lot. I felt in heaven,
How could I suddenly have almost pain? That proved to me, that in my body what I was eating was somehow causing my pain. But of course you cannot live on almost zero nutrition. So the program reintroduces food in a prescriptive approach that maximises nutrition and encourages stable pain levels (with full support from medication.) So as I added food back in pain came back. First foods area really boring - buckwheat, quinoa, bok choi, no flavourings. But after a couple of days I could feel that I was not in as much pain as before I started the program. Yes the pain was back, but it was less.
The program slowly adds other foods. This is not fun, believe me! But when I realised that the pain was reducing ever so slightly week after week, and reducing generally reliably, that was tremendous motivation.
Because of my monthly blood tests I can see how my CRP was dropping month after month. So not only was I feeling better, bit by bit, both myself and my doctor could see the same scientifically from my blood tests.
By Summer 2016 I was beginning to hobble. By October I was well enough to start Bikram Yoga. Paddison Program puts a huge emphasis on good extended cardio exercise as a necessary part of recuperation, and Bikram Hot Yoga as the exercise of choice.
That first yoga class was very emotional. Had I not been able to park adjacent to the studio I would have driven away because still I could not walk any distance. And now what was a cripple like me doing in a class with all these lithe young women! I had never done yoga in my life before. The studio staff fully assessed my condition and gave me a stool to sit on. I kid you not, that first class I did little other than use that stool. The last part of class is floor exercises and two people kindly manhandled me to lift me to the floor, and then at the end of class two people lifted my vertical again.
To say that I cried in that first class is an understatement. Inside I was in complete turmoil. But afterwards I felt slightly less pain. And so i I thought I have done one class, it cannot get any worse, so I came back the next day, and the next. Ever since I have done around 5 classes per week.
Without the Paddison Program I would never have got to my first Bikram class. Without Bikram yoga my recovery would have stalled and I would not be able to stride out. I have even played one game of badminton again. Christmas eve I went swimming. I don't have the speed / power I used to have.
My recovery is not over. I have only one goal in life: to be healthier tomorrow than I am today. I have this goal because I know my body is susceptible to arthritis. My history of psoriasis (all clear now), osteo in most joints and harsh rheumatiod since 2015 means my approach to diet now is no joke. I have a strict diet of foods that I can eat freely, some that I can eat a little of with manageable arthritic effects and then finally a list of foods that I do dare touch ever again with a bargepole.
This is my list of foods. Everyone's list will be unique, but I believe there are common strands, such as I think had I never consumed dairy arthritis would never have appeared in my body! I think dairy is associated with 50% of arthritis.
Also I avoid nightshade plants (tomato, potatoes etc) and I think 10% of people with arthritis are triggered by nightshades.
But there is only one way to find out exactly what causes the problem and that is a detailed elimination program, such as the Paddison Program. Anything less is, in my opinion a waste of time. Some people do this off their own bat. Good luck to them! Back in Easter 2016 I decided that I was in such pain that if I was going to crawl out of my hell hole I needed help. So I not only bought the program, but as soon as I felt pain levels dropping I bought the extra support program, giving me direct access to Clint Paddison.
Everyone is different, but also we are all the same. I think what worked for me can work for others. It is a hard road but the rewards of focus, patience, determination, support from loved ones can deliver. I know some people on the program who started before me and have not achieved the level of recovery that I have. I know of others who have done it in a few months. But all are improving bit by bit: some less pain, some less meds, some both.
If you want to see a video of my story up to the beginning of last year I put together a 15 minute presentation youtube.com/watch?v=TxGWZ6h...
Andyswarbs, I can see you have been through the mill of life and come out the other side with positive attitude, I congratulate you for that. But every ones circumstances make up and starting point on a life of pain can be so vastly different. Mine stated in 1969. after a severe low back injury damage three discs ended up with a trapped sciatic nerve for which at that time there was no treatment, I laid flat on my back on a wooded board for three months, before I had some primitive physio. Then I had to wait thirteen year before I was offered a very risky operation with a 78% risk factor the operation sorted out the sciatic nerve situation, but nothing could be done for the thirteen year damage coursed to the disc, plus in the following three years after 1969. had another two spine collapse causing further disc damage, so on and off over the years I had much treatment Private and NHS.
The Private was all the weird and wonderful what I could afford out of my earnings, but first I ended with Arthritis followed by Osteoarthritis then Fibromyalgia. then full stop there is no more we can do for you, so when ones get's a severe flare up as I did just before Christmas sheer loss comes to one. Here wishing you all the best for the future and long my it continue Happy New Year Hermes.
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Can you have RA without swelling?
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