No diagnosis

Lellynelly

After worsening pain over the last 2 or 3 years I finall mention it to my doctor about 3 months ago. I have a blood test - no inflammitory markers. I asked if it could be OA but she didn't seem interested. (I am a 50 year old woman) She did send me for an x ray on my right hip though. That is one of the most painful joints. Yesterday i go to the doctor again (the third doctor as you never get to see the same one) and he said it was normal. I said 'but my hips and knees are so stiff it affects my daily life, I can't cut my toenails, putting on socks and shoes is incredibly hard, sitting on the floor is out of the question, even getting up out of chairs is hard. I really have quite limited movement' but he wasn't remotely interested.
Do I just accept I'm a bit arthritic and thats life?

stickywicket

Well....yes. And no.

I personally don't think it helpful when GPs use the term 'wear and tear' rather than OA but I'm sure some people do freak out at the word arthritis and prefer a gentler approach so that might be why yours is non-committal.

There is much that we can do for ourselves with OA. Keeping the muscles strong so that they support the joints is priority. I remember your GP referred you for physio. Have you had an appointment yet? If not, while you wait, you could try some of the exercises in the Arthritis Care booklet. There are lots of other good tips about dealing with OA here https://www.arthritiscare.org.uk/managing-arthritis

There are useful gadgets on the market to help with getting shoes / socks / tights on and off. Even for cutting toenails.

Unfortunately, there's no magic bullet that will stop it in its tracks but keeping ourselves as fit as possible really does help.

Lellynelly

Thanks sticky. You have a good memory. I got a letter through from the hosp but they don't send appointments through, they gove you 10 days to phone them up and make one. Trouble is, experience tells me you can be on the phone for 40 minutes trying to get through, and you have to phone between 9:00 and 3:00. I don't have access to a phone between those times so that was the end of that. Although tbh I probably would 't have been able to get time off work to attend sessions anyway. So I didn't bother.

barbara12

Its so hard when your xrays and bloods come back fine but you still have the pain, my bloods ar up and down but xrays did show lots of damaged..so have had 2 THR..
Maybe an MRI would show more up, there has to be a reason you have so much pain..so i would push for more test...there are other things that could cause stiff and painful joints ..I do hope you get some answers very soon..in the meantime a physio would be a great help to keep those joints form getting stiffer..

stickywicket

If you're not going to take the physio offered do check out Arthritis Care's exercises as they really do make a difference.

dreamdaisy

So the bloods showed no inflammatory markers and no positive RA factor; the most likely thing then is that you have OA which, due to it being so common, can lead to us feeling brushed off by our GPs. There are around ten million arthritics in the UK and the majority have OA which is diagnosed by Xray and maybe the GP manipulating the affected joints.

Physio is important for the muscles, and it's better if you can be taught the relevant exercises by a physiotherapist but then it lies in your hands. The GP cannot do more than offer pain dullers, perhaps an anti-inflammatory medication and maybe a short course of physio and then it's up to us to maintain the regime of doing the necessary. Arthritis of any form is painful - ain't that the truth! DD