New to the Group

Mishy50
Mishy50 Member Posts: 2
edited 28. Nov 2023, 14:06 in Living with arthritis

Hello to everyone. I live in Birmingham,UK and have been living with osteoarthritis in my hips and right knee for over 6 years.

I have read some of the information shared regarding pain relief. Many of these I have tried but I’m still struggling. Any suggestions anyone can make regarding helping to sleep!

Comments

  • Ellen
    Ellen Moderator Posts: 1,841
    edited 6. Jul 2021, 16:52

    Hello @Mishy50 lovely to meet you and welcome you to the versus Arthritis online Community.

    I see you have had Osteoarthritis in both hips and your right knee for 6 years. Getting enough sleep can be very difficult when we are in pain and makes coping with pain in the day even tougher.

    I hope this link will give you some ideas while you wait for our members to come along and share their own tips:

    https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/managing-symptoms/sleep/

    and

    https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/your-experiences/your-questions-answered/your-questions-on-pain-relief/

    I look forward to reading your posts in future.

    Best wishes

    Ellen.

  • Lilymary
    Lilymary Member Posts: 1,750

    Hi @Mishy50 and welcome to this lovely forum. I've just had hip replacement after a pretty awful time last year when the pain was constant and frequently woke me up at night, so you have my sympathy.

    To help me sleep I took a couple of pain killers before I went to bed, and experimented with a bizarre arrangement of cushions and pillows that would support my body in its preferred position. For me, (and everyone will be slightly different depending on where the damage is in the hip joint) my leg didn't like being fully extended straight out when lying down. I tend to sleep on my right side, almost on my stomach, so I had a cushion under my left hip and another under my left foot (actually a knee pillow) so that both the hip and knee joint were slightly bent. The knee pillow used properly, ie between the knees, didn't work for me pre op, but it's been invaluable, firstly as another foot pillow immediately post op when I had to sleep on my back (it helped reduce pressure points on the backs of my heels), but now in its proper use between my knees post op, to stop my hip flexing too much in the wrong direction when lying in other positions.

    I hope this helps. Experiment and see what works for you.

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