Advice please

Royston28

I am a new member to this forum and my name is Trevor. I have been diagnosed with osteoarthritis in my neck and lumbar and have been experiencing increasing pain and reduced mobility over the last 18 months which has hit my independence and reduced my confidence. I have two questions where I would welcome some advice please from other patients :
1. My pain shows itself as a strong burning sensation. Is this how others who are afflicted experience the condition ?
2. I am being offered a fusion to try to stabilise my facet joints and improve my pain free mobility. Has anyone undergone this surgery and found benefit ?

Thank you to anyone who can provide a viewpoint.

dreamdaisy

Hello, I have OA in different areas to you viz. both ankles, both knees and both hips. I have another kind of arthritis which also affects my toes and knees. I would describe the OA pain as a burning sensation but it can alter depending upon the weather and how much I have overdone things. I will never regain pain-free mobility but I hope that you can. DD

[Deleted User]

Hi Rotston28,

Welcome to our forum, I’m glad you found us and hope we can be of some help. We do have members with osteoarthritis affecting the spine - hopefully they will be able to help in the next few days.

Re the pain of osteoarthritis, I wouldn’t describe my pain as especially burning though I do recognise the sensation as you describe it. It’s difficult to express, I thought of it as a slicing kind of pain but ongoing, burning might be a better description. I have cervical OA, but can manage without intervention at the moment.

I’ve had a look at spinal fusion and found info on the nhs website that looks quite informative

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/lumbar-decompression-surgery/

Please keep posting to let us know how you are getting on and what treatment you and your team opt for.

Take care

Yvonne x