Osteo arthiritis or a flee bite in the groin.

[henri56]

I am reading some letters in this forum which made me wonder if I had the right department or the comedian section...

On one side we have poor ladies in a lot of pain unable to cope, and on the other side a lady who writes about from couch to running the 3k or whatever, which for sure must be rectified for being on the wrong forum..

There are or must be different stages in e.g.Osteo arthiritis, in my case the hip joint and where on sound advise from pain in my groin and getting a personal trainer after 6 hourly sessions and £180,- lighter my whole hip joint was destroyed.

I Lost my fantastic job as master in the merchant navy and in a timespan of 2-3 years from 1 to 2 sticks, followed by elbow crutches and am in terrible pain on 120 mg morphine SR, + 20ml liquid Oramorph and have now reached the stage to ask my GP for Oxycodone or ??? AS taken morphine is like taken smarties..

So I take my head off to people who can do a few K metres running or jogging, encountering the pain believing that any moment your hipbone will crack in two and pain radiating from the lowerback into the hipjoint, thigh and knees will be better if you persist crawling ahead on 2 crutches whereby I went for the expensive "Ergobaum" type with bottom spring.

Oh, forgot to mention the few amounts and labels of anti-depressants I went through with no help....but all I want to say with this outburst is that there are many different stages of Osteo Arthiritis and severities of pain tolerance people have to put up with..

There is no magic quick fix or a quick repair strenghtening method, as all you want to do is lie/sit down in a comfortable positition or GO ON WALKIES EXCERCISE WHEN YOU ARE WELL DRUGGED UP WITH MORPHINE!!

[kirstenra Administrator]

Agree with your observation, henri56! One disease manifestation does not fit all. Many different stages of osteoarthritis and any stage can feel differently on any day. Many different struggles and ways to cope, many people with different abilities and strategies for coping. As you said, there is no magic quick fix for osteoarthritis, no disease-modifying drugs to change the course of OA, no pain meds to take away pain and discomfort so we hope that people know what tools do exist like physical activity, weight management, education, surgery if that's needed, etc. and how best to use them, or tailor to limitations and abilities, and keep moving forward! Like everyone else's unique story, I appreciate you sharing yours -sounds like it's been a very tough road and I truly hope you are able to find relief and peace.

[kohai OA Ambassador]

Hi Henri56,

I can really empathise with the way you talk about Morphgesics.

You didn't say which type you're on, whether its MST or Morphgesics SR.

The liquid morphine, (guessing its Oramorph?) can be taken for break-through pain 10ml every 4 hours. You don't say how often you take your 20ml.

The 120mg tablets, are these once a day? or 120mg morning then another 120mg 12 hours later?

Please please read as much as you can on oxycodone (also known as Oxycontin) before even considering it.

Almost every post I read now I'm off it, talk about their hell trying to get off it.

Docs usually prescribe (in the uk) a max of 90mg twice a day slow release, with a 10mg fast acting oxy for breakthrough pain.

I was eventually taking 580mg a day and felt like i hadn't even taken them for the little good they do. But you get badly slurred speech you won't notice, but others do, so they think you're drunk all the time if they don't know what pills you're on. The confusion and feeling that you have no control over your own mind or life is just awful.

I was told it'd take me 2 years to come off 580mg daily of it.

I was clean in 3 months, but only because I had always been raising and lowering the doses between 200mg to 580mg without my doc knowing.

Overtime I felt I had no control over my life at all and was a mess, I'd lower them. But i would never ever suggest anyone else do that.

Those Oxy's are very highly addictive mentally and physically so even if you don't crave them, but don't realise your body is addicted, cold turkey to get off them is like the worst flu ever combined with the worst case of food poisoning and not he effects go on night and day from anywhere from a week to a month, depending on how many you're trying to come off. So please, do research these before asking for them as a last resort.

I ended up back on 130mg Morphgesics SR twice a day (morphine tablet form), 5-10ml liquid morphine Oramorph every four hours and diazepam 10mg-30mg daily for the muscle spasms.

I'm no doctor, all I can do is share my experience of Oxycontin/oxycodone with you, and what I'm on now.

Have you tried the BuTrans morphine patches? I found these worked well for a while, only side effect was that i felt like I had been punched really hard wherever the patch was, but my body adapted to these really quickly so then it just felt like they stopped working.

I hope what I've posted has, at the very least, given you something to think about. If not, then I'm sorry, and do hope you find something that works for you soon.

Jules

(Sorry for any typos, apart from OA, I'm right handed and very recently had a small stroke that lefty right hand paralysed, and I'm really struggling to do everything now left handed.)