Treating the cause of arthritis . . . ?

Bruzer

Hi all. I'm a 71 year-old male, in good health aside from the following. In March I had a pain in my upper right leg that was eventually diagnosed as tendonitis, and they put me on meloxicam which was a huge help (still on it). Then I woke up in April with acute pain in my right wrist and shoulder. There were no warnings of any of this aside from occasional, very minor pain in my right wrist.

Within a few months I had sharp pain in both wrists, both hands, both shoulders, lesser pain in my feet, and more of a dull achiness around my knees and legs. I had cortisone shots in my right shoulder and wrist, was a huge help (went to PT and continue to do PT at home for shoulders). Between several doctors the diagnosis was arthritis, rotator cuff pain (tendonitis) and no answers for leg ache and foot pain. Everything started stabilizing in July or so, and by the end of August everything was much better.

Now, my hands/wrists and shoulders are 90% good, leg and foot aches mostly gone. In the past week I have tapered the meloxicam down to 1/2 of a 15mg tab every other day. A little pain has come back, so not sure how well that's going to work yet -- 1/2 tab every day has worked quite well for several months.

After much reading in recent months, it seems that I have chronic inflammation -- that would cover arthritis and tendonitis. Diet seems to have something to do with it, although info is sketchy and contradictory. I had a physical last Monday and my doc was kind of noncommittal about me having chronic inflammation, and also about diet having much to do with it.

Is this it? Is this the end of the road? Only treat symptoms (pain) but not the root cause? Is there any real knowledge about chronic inflammation or whatever it is I have?

PeterJ

Hello @Bruzer and welcome to the community. We are a friendly and supportive group and I hope that you find that as well.

I understand that you are concerned about chronic inflammation and also whether diet can affect it. Have you tried pushing your GP to see if you can get a referral to a specialist? Might be worth trying.

In the meantime have a look at our website and search facility as it contains a lot of useful information. I've put a couple of links below to help get you started.

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/arthritis/

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/rheumatoid-arthritis/

https://www.versusarthritis.org/news/2020/february/can-your-diet-help-arthritis/

Please do keep posting and let us know how you get on and I am sure that others will connect with you to share there experiences as well.

With very best wishes

Peter (moderator)