Hope for OA hands.

crinkly1

I developed Nodular OA in my late 30s and for the past 20 years have been plagued by swollen, painful and intensely tender wrist, thumb and finger joints.
As these (and other) problems increasingly restricted my lifestyle and brought my PE teaching career to an untimely end and restricted my leisure interests and abilty to carry out normal household tasks I often felt close to despair.
I lost count of the number of times I read that, "Once Heberden's and Bouchard's nodes have formed the hands are rarely painful". This had to be a joke in very poor taste!

Having given up any prospect of relief I reached my 66th birthday and soon discovered that the impossible seemed to have occurred. Wary of 'going public' I cautiously waited and four months on there are still the stiff, mishapen fingers and restricted grip but the grinding, disabling pain has almost completely gone. My fingers remain slender and I can undertake tasks that have been impossible for a third of my lifetime! Wow!

This year, too, I had a successful shoulder op and am anticipating knee replacements in the near future. So, as I head towards my 70th year the outlook actually looks far better than in my 50th and my family will need to look out for more of a supergran. Life feels so much better than just a few short months ago.

It seems such a waste of the normally active years that there is still little truly effective early help for those of us with OA but I write this in the hope that it may encourage someone else to realise that the outcome may be less awful than they fear.

Does anyone want an elderly, well-used wax bath??

Optimistically yours - Crinkly 1

dreamdaisy

Hello crinkly1, I am very pleased to hear that your hands are feeling better and you are once again able to do the things you want to do. I am not clear, however, on one thing: did your hands sort themselves out or did you take a supplement to help things on their way? I apologise for my denseness, it's early Monday morning and Sunday night weren't too hot! DD

traluvie

Great news crinkly1,

It's great to read positive stories and i am glad you are now super gran.. you think you can share some of your powers to make me super mom again lol..

crinkly1

Yes, DD, the response has been entirely spontaneous. (I've taken Tramadol with Amitriptyline for pain relief for a long time and have recently had to stop using NSAIDs due to blood test results.) That's why it's such an event for celebration! Apparently it is typical of hand OA but, after 20 years, I'd given up hope of it happening for me.

I have problems with most joints - hence waiting for tkr's - so it's brilliant to find one part of my body improving. There are still limitations due to distorted finger joints but I'm hopeful that, without pain, appropriate exercises will help regain lost function.

barbara12

Hi crinkly1
That is such good news, I am 61 and my hips and back are effected, but now my hand and neck are getting painful, I wonder if the joints get to a stage were they just stop grinding together , anyway I bet you dont are has long has the pain isn't as bad ..long may it carry on for you , and thankyou for sharing this. x

frogmorton

Hi Crinkly

what an absolutely fabulous post!!!

thanks you SO much for posting it

I am so very very pleased for you and hope you will hang about as your input sounds like it will be invaluable.

Love

Toni xx

dreamdaisy

Well oh crinkled one, that makes it so so SO much better! If I could turn a cartwheel I would! Enjoy it my lovely, you deserve it. DD

dotty123

Hi that is brilliant news . We all can live in hope I guess. So run this by me again, you didn't take anything or have any op, it just reversed itself ? Sorry I am a bit confused and I want my hands to get better and come out of this deep depression it brings.
xx

crinkly1

Me yet again.

I know it sounds unlikely but I can assure you that I've taken no new meds or supplements. I did all my experiments with supplements many years ago and settled for Tramadol with Amitriptyline at night - plus NSAIDs until my liver objected. The only surgery I've had is a long ago knee arthroscopy and recent keyhole subachromial decompression with removeal of calcific deposits in tendons to my right shoulder. (Oh yes, plus partial thyroidectomy in 1992) Nothing at all done to my hands!

If you read up on hand OA (might even be in the AC leaflets) you should soon find references to the likelihood of spontaneous loss of pain. I understand that the bony nodes reach a maximum size in the fingers and then just stop growing.I have these 'knobs' in all finger and thumb joints) While I knew this in theory I had given up hope of experiencing it for myself so it's great surprise.

So far as I know this doesn't occur in other joints - more's the pity!

I too have had some very low times when I felt that the hand restrictions were far worse than loss of mobility. Some days my hands were too tender to want to touch any hard surface and I was on the point of investing in a bum-wiper. I truly feared I was facing 20 more years of steadily deteriorating function and have been pretty close to becoming a caller to the Samaritans as well as the listening volunteer I actually am.

It is fantastic so i felt I needed to let others know that it can happen but may take longer than the text books indicate. However i do need to emphasise that I have simple Nodal OA and no other form of arthritis or accompanying condition.

I wish I could wave a magic wand over you all so you could feel as positive as I dare to do now!

Crinkly (my family's compilation of creaky & wrinkly) aka Alison