Arthritis?

The bloods may be very useful and the MRI certainly will be valuable. It is a pity that they are only on bits of you as I suspect that there may be an autoimmune problem going on. My wife has one and was referred for various tests with an appointment scheduled for the 19th of February, ‘when all the results should be available and we can think about starting treatment‘.

Late last week the appointment was put off until some time in June. Wife who can now barely move took umbridge and rang ‘the person who knew’ only to be told that she was on holiday until next week. A call on Monday just after lunch found that ‘the person who knew’ had already gone home, part timers. So the call was tried again on Tuesday and the full details were spelt out to ‘the person who knew’. Ten minutes later the phone rang and my wife now has an appointment for a week earlier than the previous cancelled one.

So the lesson is not to be unreasonable but to press with details and full facts so that you have the best chance of good treatment and above all a clear diagnosis. Incidentally, I suspect many of these ‘I have not seen that before‘ cases have more in common with patients have not lived long enough, reported symptoms clearly enough and a range of less probing efforts on behalf of the medicine people.

I wish you well and hope that there will soon be a better outcome.

Good luck, my wife, one of many of her ills is Oestioarthritis , her nan had it , but it took years for them to pin it down. Ever since she went on the chemo the arthritis has got worse.

Arthritis of any order isn’t good. My back issue (lower 4 ) has lead me to have hip issues. ATM it’s more an annoyance than anything but it’s been gradually getting more annoying as the years tick by. I know as my back plays up and effects my left leg, i counter balance the pain by putting more weight on the right leg which must be putting added wear in the hip.

I don’t mentally do it, bit I do tend to favour the right leg now because of my back .

The as strong as your weakest link has never been more relevant. But once you get a weak link, it causes a domino effect!

An arthritic issue will no doubt lead to a stomach one if you take to many anti inflammatories, so that is somewhere you need to keep an eye on.

PlaneMan wrote:

Thanks for the good wishes. TBH as long as I can cycle I’m okay. I’ve not liked walking for years, lots of injuries when younger started to take a toll but I could do it without huge amounts of pain, which was very handy and I was very grateful, especially as I could have lost my ankle due to a very bad break. It is what it is and there are people way worse of than me. Hope the mrs gets sorted.

Thank you,

I have also found most pain relief was next to useless, the only time it was slightly useful was when I was in hospital years back, they told me they were reducing the tablets and then I found out what the food was really like. It did nothing for the real pains then and never has since. Your trouble does sound slightly like nerve pain for which there is very little that has any effect except removing the source of the nerve trauma. My main one was/is spinal problems, some were relieved by an operation, I can now walk with two legs and stand up, but then new pains arrived.

Some people say that exercise is the answer to joint pains, the wrist exercises I have been given are great – for making the elbow problem worse, so I do not have total faith in that theory.

I did find I can now walk far further than I thought possible a little while ago. I had some trouble with a car and walked home from the garage a few times, it is about 3 miles and about a third is up hills, They were really hard work, but I was surprised that I did it at all. A while back I would not have been able to do more than a few hundred yards, so things can change.

This has come up before – I posted this before – and I am as much sceptical of mumbo jumbo as anyone else……….

I have been taking montmorency cherry juice for probably 3 or 4 years and it has coincided with the disappearance of the arthritis symptoms I had in my left ankle (fractured 30 years ago).

It certainly won’t do any harm and has anti-oxidant benefits too. I’m almost rolling my eyes at myself but a glass of that a day has made a real difference for me….takes a bit of getting used to but you’d know by the end of the first bottle (make it up like a small glass of squash) if it is worth it…..I was amazed how quick it worked for me.

….as a side benefit it is great for hangovers (so I have heard).

you and me both – hated it at first – its very sharp/sour – but I really enjoy it now and you get a real smack (i.e. a “livener”) in the morning when you have a glass – a bottle (946ml) should last a month, if no change then no great loss, but I could tell a difference (maybe placebo who knows) very quick. Also meant to be good post-exercise.

Sour cherry has quite a number of claimed health benefits. There are some research results suggesting that it may also be good for reducing insomnia and high blood pressure.

AFAIK so far all these have only been scoping trials which indicate that there may be real effects that are worthwhile researching. Of course drug companies hate natural products so large scale placebo controlled trials are thin on the ground. It could be the new Willow Bark – but drug companies have learned that there isn’t much money in aspirin despite it having well-researched widespread proven benefits (often better than many proprietary drugs).