Learning to live with arthritis

[ClusterFog]

I was diagnosed with arthritis in both knees in my early fifties.

I lost weight and did lots of exercise and have been almost pain free for a few years.

Now all of a sudden it's back. I can still walk several miles a day, but getting up and down the stairs is really hard. I feel 10 years older and know I will become miserable if I can't get out and about due to mobility issues.

Just wondering how others have learned to live with their arthritis.

What type of arthritis? I've lived with psoriatic arthritis for 20 year or so (I'm now 40) and it's generally well controlled with medication. My dad has osteoarthritis in both his knees and has had both of them replaced - it's given him a new lease of life and he's very active these days.

I take painkillers to get on with everyday life with osteoarthritis. Aged 40. There's not much that I can do except keep my weight in check and keep moving - medication allows me to keep moving!

Sorry - it's osteoarthritis.

I don't really want to go down the medication route, but might not have choice. I guess in due course I'll be looking at replacements, but that seems very scary.

A friend recommended wearing a compression bandage.

Thanks for the replies.

Research cbd oil and gummies for chronic pain.

I don't give up. I can't do what I used to - martial arts, hiking, mountain walking etc - but I am not prepared to allow arthritis to rule my life. I have little mobility left, but I keep going. I do what I can, maybe a little bit more, travel and stay positive. I have seen too many people give up, vegetate and let it rule them. That is no way to live. If it limits you, you can learn to live with that. I am still alive!

I'm 39 and have Osteoarthritis in my feet, back and ankle, when it flares up, I take painkillers, use a hot water bottle, bath, and ibuprofen gel.

Can you do a slow build up of strength training? I was diagnosed late 40s and have found a programme of strength training has helped me keep going. It still hurts but i accept I will never be pain free. However I’d rather be fit and in pain than fat and in pain, so I just focus on what I can do, not what I can’t. I do lots of lunges and squats with a big focus on form. It took a few years to get to where I needed to be, sadly there were no quick fixes. Its good that you are still walking - could you build up to a gentle run? With well fitting running shoes it might help strengthen your bones and joints over time. A low inflammatory diet could help too - again, not a quick fix but worth doing for other health benefits. I hope you find something that works - arthritis sucks.

I have OA in both hands and hips / knees. I am 59. I take painkillers as needed, wear compression gloves and just grit my teeth and get on with it. I still ski, walk and ride my horse, but accept the pain is a price I have to pay for my hobbies.

I have been referred for physio after visiting my GP. Is this something that you could look into?

@elastamum can you explain the gloves please? I've started suffering with my hands.

Also my balloints of the big toe.

You can get fingerless gloves for arthritis on Amazon, They provide compression and keep your hands warm. I find they work as well as painkillers, particularly in winter.

Oh fab. I could wear them at night maybe, feel better in the morning.

The only way I deal with my osteoarthritis (diagnosed in 30s, now 50, part of a whole clusterf*ck of congenital deformities & failed surgeries since childhood) is with pain killers, movement & sheer bloody stubbornness.

Use aids to keep moving & grooving. As my Mum’s OT says, Motion is Lotion.

Mum has moderate OA in both her knees but likes to do the dying swan act, hence the need for an OT at home. And there’s me, jacked up on opiates & pregabalin, with OA in every vertebrae from mid thoracic to L5, micro fracturing, scar tissue, synovial cysts instead of discs & using a variety of sticks, doing her personal care, gardening & housework! Or wheeling her around in her chair at appointments because she doesn’t like to use her walker in public (as I juggle her chair and a stick). And as she doesn’t want strangers in her house - we’ve been through the adult social care loops & all professional suggestions have been rejected by her - so it’s left to muggins here & my DH to care for her.

But I digress.

Keep moving, stay active, get a good meditation regime that helps keep you doing (to protect your own mental health if anything, it’s too easy in constant pain to be sucked into staring into the bleak pain abyss every day) and use whatever aids you need to keep moving forwards.

Following for any tips. I am mid 50s and have OA recently diagnosed in cervical and thoracic spine as well as all sorts of other places (inc hands, knees, ankles) but it’s the spine that hurts 24/7 and the rest is drowned out by the spinal pain. I can’t take NSAIDs and have nothing other than paracetamol which doesn’t seem to help. Pre-pandemic I was an active club tennis player but now can’t contemplate anything sporty when holding my own head up is so painful.

Does aqua aerobics help at all? It’s about the only fitness thing I can imagine doing.

People (and the NHS) talk about OA “flaring up”, but my experience of it so far is constant and progressive. Is that unusual? I suppose I should ask my mother, aunt, cousins - we all get this in my family.

This! Absolute game changer for me.

I have somewhat accepted that arthritis is a part of me and I have to live with it. So have accepted that I have to use a stick for walking, flat shoes, arthritis gloves for hands, safety rails and a host of other adaptions, exercise (aqua aerobics is fab as is swimming and I love to dance) , keep my weight down etc because without them I can’t live my life independently or without being depressed and angry. For every adaptation I have to make, I really try to see the benefits and what I stand to loose if I don’t make the changes to my home/style/life. i have also learnt the hard way what my limits are - no more decorating for hours/days at a time, but more the every morning for a week, with afternoons to do something else in order to recover type approach to activities.

High dose daily curcumin, weight loss and aqua aerobics really help with OA in my knee.

I take glucosamine on the recommendation of physio, she recommended the 1500 dose but the tablets are huge. I can tell within a couple of days if I forget them as I cant get up/down stairs

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/complementary-and-alternative-treatments/types-of-complementary-treatments/glucosamine/

Which brand do you use?

Wow, thank you for all the suggestions.

Some good tips here, keep them coming.

@KnottyKnitting I use Reakiro 25mg, often buy one get one free from either their own website or H&B

Look into high does omega fish oil I think the study I read was 1200mg a day of two type - participants reported a drop in joint pain so much so they lowered or came off pain meds

I'm taking one that's about £30 a month now

*just started so can't report on results yet . Don't have OA but going through joint pain atm ( under investigation )

I am 70 and have osteoarthritis in both knees. Aquarobics helps more than anything else.

Holland and Barrett for both a cream and gummies. I tend to stock up on buy one get one free and use it with the 20% discount they often give out. Makes it a lot more affordable.

No idea why my post has been hidden but h and b often do bogof offers plus 20% off.