Hip Pain - How do you manage? Any advice gratefully received.

[ipanemagirl]

I have been through the system and am not yet a candidate for hip replacement according to my consultant. He said I’m in the 20% who is likely to find an operation does not improve my life.

My problem is I do my exercises and walking and sometimes I am fine. But today I am in such sharp pain it is hard to walk. I feel like I’m secretly disabled. I’m very ashamed as I think it’s my fault for not exercising carefully enough over the years. Also I think menopause, injury, bad exercise, hyper mobility, three pregnancies and a bit of weight have contributed.

I don’t know how other people decide how to live with this kind of confounding, inconsistent pain.

any advice gratefully received. Psychologically this feels impossible at the moment.

But it is absolutely proven to be the best way of dealing with it. Even when it's got to bone on bone.

The best way to allow arthritis to stop a joint from being able to move is to stop the joint moving yourself. The best way to destroy cartilage is to stop weight bearing exercise.

There's considerable controversy in medical circles about knee replacement, with a growing belief that replacement is not the answer, with proper orthopedic specialist physio producing as least as good, if not better, long term result.

hmmm, I think if someone has reached their 60s and they have bone on bone arthritis in their hip, they are almost certainly going to need a hip replacement operation.

Most hip replacements now last 25 years plus so it seems to me that relieving their suffering now is the sensible option.

My mother has suffered hip pain for many years and I’m not sure if they’ve ever managed to diagnose anything and definitely never offered replacement. I know she takes Amytriptiline for pain, and also sometimes has a steroid injection right into the hip which helps but must be in exactly the right place. So something like that might be an option? I get pain on the outside of my hip and regular massage helps with that.

@Imdunfer That's very interesting.
I have had RA for ten years+ and am also riddled with osteoarthritis. Bizarrely the more serious condition, RA, is also more treatable. I find the RA flares often attack those joints that are already damaged by OA.
My fingers are pretty badly bent and knuckles swollen, right hip was damaged by a massive RA flare last year.
I've always tried to keep moving though. I have started a new RA drug which has eased all the RA symptoms, one of which is fatigue and I've managed to up my exercise considerably as a result. I've done pilates for years but now doing gym and dance.
I'd love to get some function back in my fingers. I can't make a fist and some finger joints are fused straight, others bent. I'm seeing a physio without much luck so far. Your theory of pushing those joints does seem to align with the physio.
Not going down the supplement route as I tried all kinds of quacky things in the early days and none made any difference until I got proper RA drugs. I appreciate they come with risks and side effects but they have transformed my life.

I'm sorry you're a bit seized up, i luckily managed to avoid that so far, though I've got more bent fingers than straight ones!. I can't take HCQ because it went for my eyes really quickly, and there was a huge delay before the pharmacist would talk to me about MTX and I was backsliding fast. So I'm on the supplements purely by chance because I had to do something. Luckily they work for me. I'm glad the prescribed drugs work for you.

The fatigue is extreme, isn't it? I used to spend all day yawning from when I woke until I'll I went back to bed!