reached my limits

[shanex1]

so now christmas is over all my friends are playing football. i join in as much as i can but sometimes it hurts too much. i don't want my friends to know i'm hurting because i want to play. i used to play football before i had arthritis and its the thing i miss the most. for me when i have a painful day i have to take 2-3 days rest but we play football every day. its incredibly painful but i want to play. i honestly dont know what to do

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Happy New Year Shanex1 and stay strong. We don't get that many younger people on here and when we do I bet I'm not the only older person who feels like punching a wall with anger at the thought of what you must be going through. Being nosey I looked back at your posts and saw from the last one that you were off enbrel & am wondering what has happened with your meds since then? The thing that strikes me is that you can play football and even though it is painful that must surely mean that you could be playing a lot more in the future with the right medicines. There is a young lady whose posts I've read in the archive who is an acrobat and she went from being on crutches to performing again. Her name is Su something, can't remember the rest of her online name. So it can happen, most definitely.

All the best to you, Luce x

[shanex1]

my doctors made a group decision to take me off the enbrel. i still take piroxicam daily but thats it.

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Hi Shanex. You haven't told us much about yourself so it's hard to grasp why your doctors have taken you off enbrel and not replaced it with anything else? I am never quite sure that I do actually have RA although I was diagnosed and am being treated for it - but in my more rational moments I do feel reasonably sure that if I can dance and exercise and walk long distances now it is probably because the medication I'm on is working well for me. Piroxicam is only an anti-inflammatory (NSAID) so if you have some sort of inflammatory arthritis this will not be enough to modify your disease. If you were on the right drugs and had support of physiotherapy it is possible that you could be playing football more and suffering less I think. When I first came here over a year ago - and for some spells of time there have been quite a lot of younger members coming on this forum but I think a lot of them are too busy or life changes rapidly for them or they get re-diagnosed with other conditions such a fibro and then we don't see them again for a while. There are younger sufferers on the Arthritis Care site but from where I'm sitting, and I'm no medic of course, it seems that for many of us our future prospects lie in the DMARDs or Biologic drugs - although I believe Ankylosing Spondylitis does respond the most favourably to exercise and physiotherapy. Tilda xx

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Also, looking back, I see you are 17 so now I'm wondering whether your doctors know how you feel about things. I have sons and when they were your age they weren't the best at letting people in on how they felt. So perhaps if you've put on a brave face so far it would be a good idea to psyche yourself up to tell your consultant what you've told us & that might make them think even harder about the treatment you are getting. trouble with consultants is that sometimes they need a push to keep on the ball. I think it's good that you have come on here and expressed how bad you feel at the moment, is there a next step you can take? What about your parents or any other people who care for you, have you told them how difficult it can be? Keep looking for answers Shanex1, don't suffer in silence, please. Wishing you well, Luce x

[allanah]

Sounds awful, i love mountain climbing and at the moment cant climb the blooming stairs. Sounds like you need another visit to the doctors to say you are in pain. You just need to be as brave as you are when you are trying to play football and take a deep breath and make that appointment. Cos you got arthritis doesnt mean you have to suffer, they have stuff that helps, so tell them you need more help. And to use the phrase my daughter hates me using cos it shows my age, YOLO !! love Axx

[Victoria-NRAS Partner Moderator NRAS]

Hi shanex1

As a fellow football fan I sympaphise with your situation, and am pleased to see that you are getting some support on here. As others have said, we don't currently have very main young members on this site, but if you wanted to speak to people of a similar age, as Tilda mentioned there is a specific forum for young people on the Arthritis Care website, which might also be useful to you.

Here is a link to the 'young people' section on their site:

arthritiscare.org.uk/Living...

You are also obviously more than welcome on this site.

Kind regards

Victoria

(NRAS Helpline)