Advice\help\guidance for Arthritis on the knees

stickywicket

How kind of you to want to help your friend!

You should tell your friend the best person to gice advice is the G P. Options are limited with osteoartheitis but a change of pain meds might help. Also physio. Some have found Pain Clinics very useful. It would also be a good idea to check our Arthritis Care's publications (top of page)

chookgate

My own experience of arthritis in the knees is that there isn't a lot the NHS will do for someone as young as your friend. GP's will prescribe pain medication in the form of NSAIDs and analgesics, and if you're lucky will refer you to a consultant. If your friend has been diagnosed, then they must have had an x ray? The GP will have said how bad the arthritis is - eg for mine, he said I needed total knee replacements, but that I was too young (52) to be referred for that, so he sent for physio and increased my pain meds. There are intermediate treatments - eg arthroscopy - keyhole surgery where the knee can be washed out or have bone growths removed, and possibly tears repaired.

So it depends how bad it is - it seems to me the NHS will let your friend become disabled before it will help, and then when it does it will be a long hard road to full recovery because of the amount of time mobility has been restricted.

If it is just (!) pain and mobility is unaffected, personally I would stick with pain killers, but if walking etc is getting harder and harder, and your friend can afford it, if the GP won't refer them to an orthopedic consultant, they should have a private consultation and find out the options.