That's blown that theory out of the water!

GraceB

I was always told by medical people "lose weight and that'll help your joints, your pain will reduce and your mobility will improve".

Well so far from my perspective, this is all great big fat whopping lies. My ankle (which I had operated on last July) is absolutely awful at the moment and is again keeping me awake at night. My other joints have well and truly joined in the party - a party to which I am sadly an unwanted participant.

I have another follow-up appointment 11th January for my ankle (following my op last July) and will now have to update the consultant with the facts as they are so it'll not be a positive experience for the consultant sadly.

My joints always flare in the winter so I'm not overly surprised, but what has taken me aback rather, is the intensity of the pain, stiffness and especially with my ankle the spasms of pain which are coming from deep within the joint.

However, there are a lot of people a lot worse off than myself, I remind myself of that daily and continue to count my blessings. Apologies for the moan, I don't often give in as you know.

Hope you are all as pain free as possible.

GraceB

Boomer13

I'm sorry to hear you are so painful. It can truly be awful when various joints are screaming out. I have my share to especially at night right now, it's particularly bad. You have my sympathy.

I still think you are to be commended for sticking to your diet and losing the weight. You've done so well and I think it will help you in a lot of ways, maybe just not right away. So give yourself a big pat on the back. I for one, admire your accomplishment!

Be kind to yourself and you have best wishes from me.

Anna

Melanie17

Really sorry to hear that you are in pain.Doctors/consultants don't,in my view,see us as individuals and tend to adopt general rules for all of us.Whilst losing weight may help some people enormously,it may not have the same impact on your joints.I am 5ft 6ins now(I was shocked to find out that I have shrunk 2 inches!) and weigh 8st 8lbs.I have always been slim,as are most of my family members.Many of my joints are in a bad state,especially my left knee.I felt that the consultant was viewing me with curiosity and I think that she may have been surprised to see so much joint damage on one so slim.Do continue to lose weight and good luck but I agree with you-we are individuals and some recommendations will work better for some than others.

Melanie

dreamdaisy

Ah, medics and the lies they peddle. Once the joints are damaged beyond a certain point then one could resemble a stick insect and still be in pain. For those in the early stages of OA then it may slow the progression of the disease but progress it will. I find I do move more 'freely' when I shed some weight but the pain levels remain the same. It's not on, is it? Obviously carrying excess weight is not good for the whole body so console yourself that you are helping your heart and muscles with your weight loss and that is a good thing. DD

GraceB

Thank you for your responses and your support. I try not to focus on negative aspects of the "joys" of living with arthritis - it doesn't do any good - but knowing I can 'voice' my feelings on here does make a difference.

My ankle is still absolutely chronic today and is just not settling. It'll be interesting to see what the consultant thinks when I see him on the 11th.

It's going to be a busy time for me as 8th Jan I have my pre-op for my gallbladder op; 11th is my orthopaedic consultant follow-up from my ankle surgery last July; and then of course 16th Jan I'll be waving goodbye - with the help of a general surgeon - to my gallbladder and that day can't come quickly enough for me.

Thanks again.

GraceB

stickywicket

Unfortunately, if you have ongoing problems with the ankle, the very commendable weight loss will not appear to help much. After all, stick insects would have ankle pain post op.

All I know for certain, courtesy or Arthritis Research UK, is that those who are overweight are more likely to get OA, that losing weight slows down cartilege damage and inflammation and that exercising arthritic knees helps to preserve them.

Whatever it does or doesn't do for the OA though your weight loss will surely help to prevent other problems arising so has to be good. The fact that you've persevered over Christmas and despite the gall bladder problems shows your determination. That must be good even if it doesn't seem to translate into less pain.

daffy2

I was always told by medical people "lose weight and that'll help your joints, your pain will reduce and your mobility will improve".

Statements like that always need to come with a caveat or rider of 'all other things being equal'. The only bit which probably doesn't need qualifying is the first - losing weight will benefit the joints by reducing the stress put on them. The next bit though overlooks the fact, well known to the medics but largely ignored nonetheless, that joint damage is not always directly correlated with pain levels. Someone can have a badly damaged joint which causes little grief but another person can have what seems much lesser damage to the same joint and experience severe pain. That of course has an impact on the last bit of the statement. Ease and levels of mobility will depend on range of movement but arguably to a greater extent on presence or (relative)absence of pain.
It's quite possible that you would have had problems with pain anyway, simply because you've been having considerable other health issues. Being fearful(not surprisingly) of the pain of your gall bladder has probably sent some very unhelpful messages to your arthritic joints, and now you have the stressful anticipation of the op.
Well done on your continued weight loss - it will have benefits, even if positive effects on pain levels aren't among them at the moment, not least of which is that the medics won't be able to dismiss your difficulties so easily under the 'overweight' cop out!

GraceB

Thank you for your thoughts and support.

I shall plod on with the weight loss and in the meantime have resorted to heat, tubigrip around the ankle, my anti inflammatory gel, keeping the ankle moving and resting it.

If it's still this bad on the 11th when I see my ortho., cons., at least he'll see it when it's really playing up.

GraceB