I am new

Baz86

Hello,
I am new in here, I seen the advert the other day and I was diagnosed with arthritis last year in both hips, I was due to have an operation but has been cancelled due to current situation. Think my biggest struggle is dealing with it mentally. I always played football and cannot do that now. I struggle to move around. Would be nice to speak to others who are going through this.

Ziggy123

Hi Baz nice to meet you. Only just found the forum myself..I know exactly what you mean about the mental side of it baz. I've struggled myself over the years and still do. A few years ago I had to get counselling as I was really struggling. Pain and fatigue mentally drained me as a person. I couldn't do the things that I wanted to do, like my hobby which was fishing. Work was tough as well, and I done the guy thing and told nobody about my condition. I'm 44 now and have no problem about talking my Rheumatoid Arthritis, but back 9 or 10 years ago when I was first diagnosed with it I actually felt sort of embarrassed in some way as I knew very little about it. Infact I think the first thing I said to the dr was.. how have I got RA is that not an illness you get in your 80s or something..that's how naive I was to arthritis. Baz I'm glad you found the forum and I'm sorry your struggling with the pain in your hips at present, hopefully it will get better for you. In the mean time I'm happy to chat away to yourself and help in any way I can.

frogmorton

Baz
Welcome to the forum from me.
At your age (born 1986 I am guessing?) it must be hard to stop doing sport like football.
I hope it's not too long before you are able to have your surgery. Sadly there are others here who have had their operations cancelled too.
I have many times said to people that adjusting to this new way of life mentally can be as hard as physically.
It's like you didn't expect this. We all sort of know how we think our lives will pan out and have to grieve for the change in our futures.
The good thing is you've found us lot and can get some support and have a moan as well as getting safe and reliable information about arthritis.
Take care Baz and keep talking

Baz86

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated, it’s good to be able to speak to people who understand it. It has hit me hard with the fact I am 23 and used to play football and go to the gym. Now I am not active at all, I can’t put my socks on and have got to the stage where I struggle to put my trousers on. My girlfriend is fully understanding and has been brilliant, I have a 7 week old son and frustrates me that I can’t move around how I use to, just getting up of the sofa is a massive effort now. But totally agree I did not think it would hit me mentally as much as it has. Appreciate the responses and am also here to chat anytime.

YvonneH

Hi Baz86,

Hi and welcome from me too. It's lovely to meet you, and lovely that you have a supportive family and a 7 week old son, relax and enjoy time with him as much as you can, one good thing for the lockdown!

Here's our factsheet on osteoarthritis of the hips

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/osteoarthritis-oa-of-the-hip/

Were you given any exercises to do when you were scheduled for your hip replacements? It is still worth doing those as often as you can - it will make your new joints more secure and recovery quicker

Please post anywhere you feel comfortable, reading others posts can be really cheering and helping others with a word or suggestion is a great thing to do

Take care

Yvonne x

dreamdaisy

Hello, I can't help at all: I'm a childless old woman who, thanks to her genetic inheritance, was virtually guaranteed to get an auto-immune arthritis and other accompanying stuff. I do know about pain though, I spent most of yesterday in bed utterly flattened by the dratted stuff.

Life got easier when being pain-free in the majority of joints became a thing of the past because it stopped standing out. Did you know that males have more pain receptors than females? This makes men more vulnerable to pain and they feel it more acutely. Nobody has a high pain threshold either, they merely have less effective neural transmitters. On-going pain is draining, exhausting and can be isolating. I keep my pain relief to the minimum and use distraction as my main coping strategy but my life is so very different to yours. You are at the beginning of it all but we will do what we can to help and support. DD

Baz86

thank you very much for the support, type error on my last message, I am 33 years old. When I went to see the surgeon they offered me a hip replacement straight away, they did advise exercise and cod liver oil and pain killers. I used to go gym all the time but since my movement is loads worse I have not been going for 3 years. I have myself to blame as because I am in so much pain I am not exercising, which is a mindset thing with me. I should exercise more just need the motivation to do it and try and lose weight. But I am overwhelmed with support shown on here, thank you very much