Hands and GP's Being a Pain.

JCR2951

Hi all,

I hope you are okay?

I am 24 and have been diagnosed with OA in my foot. I have been getting severe pain in my other foot and both hands - but the doctors are refusing to send me for any other tests, as I am "too young" and "just have to deal with the pain". I am very fortunate that my fiance helps me out a lot - we bought our first house before Christmas and the move definitely took it out of me! And now we have just bought a puppy, so my hands are feeling the pain! However, I do feel like he is helping with my anxiety and depression (silver linings)!

Does anyone have any tips on dealing with GP's or anything that helps with the pain in their hands?

I work full time in an office, constantly on the computer, so I am having to use my hands quite a bit.

Jess

dreamdaisy

I just spent twenty minutes or so laboriously typing a reply, was at the end when an arthritic finger drifted across the wrong bit of my 'virtual' keyboard and I lost the lot. :x This version will come across as being terse, and I apologise.

1. GPs know what little about a lot and sometimes their little is less than microscopic.

2. Arthritis is associated with being an affliction of the elderly - it isn't. Younger people are now being regularly diagnosed with OA and medical thinking is now considering that there could be a genetic link as there is with the auto-immune kinds.

3. Who diagnosed your foot OA and how?

4. Have you noticed that things worsen with cold and/or damp weather?

5. I began my first arthritis, an auto-immune one called psoriatic in 1997 when I was 37, OA was diagnosed fourteen years later. The meds for the first have no effect on the OA which I manage with pain-relief and rest. Some of my joints have one, some the other and others both: around forty joints are affected so I am used to pain.

6. Does anyone else in your family have any kind of arthritis?

7. Some people use hot wax baths or soak their hands in a basin of warm water laced with Epsom Salts: both provide temporary relief.

My temper with my fingers is not improving so I'm off! I had a long day yesterday and stuff is aggravated. DD

stickywicket

There are aids for a computer, I believe. No use asking me what as I'm best on a bogstandard keyboard with a bogstandard mouse but I do know employers have to make reasonable adjustments for those who have physical difficulties at work. Some have had Voice Activated Software installed though, frankly, hardly anyone likes it.

I heartily wish one could be 'too young' for arthritis. I was diagnosed at 15 and probably started at 11 but mine is / was RA. (Now it's RA and OA).

I've always been fortunate enough to have great GPs but I know that some can be less than helpful about arthritis. Probably because there's not a lot they can do about it.

I wonder how you were diagnosed. Did you have your foot x-rayed? I ask because, if someone has an autoimmune form of arthritis eg RA, as opposed to OA, the changes can often show first on a foot x-ray even when the patient has no problem with their feet. RA commonly affects the small joints first. If you did have your foot x-rayed and there were no signs of RA then it's unlikely that your GP would refer you to a rheumatologist as they only deal with autoimmune forms of arthritis, not OA. If not, though, it might be worth asking. Here are the NICE recommendations. https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng100/chapter/Recommendations