osteoarthritis

[Zipstar70]

every bone in my body hurts, I find it difficult standing up, moving around I cannot sit down, I wondered if anybody else has severe osteoarthritis and how they manage. Thank you. Ps I do keep active as much as I can and walk 3 to 6 miles every day with the dog, but I can’t do much else and have to rest when I do a little bit around the house so it’s very stressful. I just wanted some advice on what sort of medication people are on for osteoarthritis, cervical spondylosis also. Not getting much out from the NHS as per usual.

[cyberbarn]

I am sorry to hear you are in such pain. Who diagnosed the osteoarthritis? My GP said my pain was 'just a bit of osteo' but I insisted on an appointment with a rheumatologist and it turned out to be psoriatic arthritis and OA.

And yes, there isn't really much medication for OA. If you take paracetamol you need to take it all the time rather than just when the pain gets bad. In the research literature there are some drugs that rheumatologists can prescribe that work on OA, but they aren't not generally used in the NHS and if you only have OA the GP won't be able to refer you to rheumatology.

So the only thing left is things like getting ideas from The Pain Toolkit to distract yourself from the pain. Sadly that doesn't work with the fatigue, for that you have to pace yourself, and that sounds like what you are doing already.

paintoolkit.org

[Imagine1]

Hi Zipstar70, I was diagnosed with the same condition in my big toe joint, it was found on an Xray for a broken ankle. It was news to me at the time, I never had problems with my toes. It has got progressively worse because I am constantly walking on it and have made the problem even worse, so I know how you feel. I work 30 hours a week I don't know how but I have to for the money, I have to have it strapped up so that I can walk. I am allergic to painkillers but I recently found out that I can take Ibuprofen, it works fantastic, when I take it I am pain free for about 2 hours and then it starts wearing off but at least I get 2 hours less pain, it is stronger than paracetamol. Probably if you take that it will do the same for you. The NHS are a complete waste of time, I am still waiting for Physiotherapy after 3 years of waiting.

[Hidden]

Hi Zipstar70

I don't have severe osteo but have a dr's formal diagnosis of osteo due to thumb bone broken bits.

I also have hand pain (dr diagnosed as rheumatism), and neck-cracking every time I roll over in the night unless I take 750mg glucosamine HCL (hydrochloride, not sulfate) +250mg shark chondroitin twice daily (with food).

Can't advise on medication due to intolerances.

But besides the glucosamine, I use my local heated public pool to reduce pain. (The heated pool is my only means of exercise without increasing pain in the following days.)

In the past with the heated pool when I was too weak to exercise, I simply immersed myself up to my neck for 30 minutes and had some pain relief for the following 24hrs.

I wish you the best, Zipstar70.