Elbow pain

Steve58

Hi and good morning , I was diagnosed a couple of years ago with joint damage to both elbows. My orthopedic consultant also referred me to rheumatology to investigate inflammation which was seen to be present. After being prescribed methotrexate and a couple of attempts of steroid treatment there was no pain or inflammation reduction. Since then I have tried amgevita, then benepali injections, both unsuccessful. I am now taking rinvoq which thankfully has reduced my inflammation markers, but not the pain. My rheumy consultant referred me back to orthopedics. I waited a year for an appointment, which I had in February. When I went, the consultant said " you probably don't need me to tell you this, but your elbows are both shot, and you're too young (I'm 63) for any surgery, possibly for the next ten years, so there's nothing we can offer you. Have you thought about the pain clinic?" I was quite shocked as I had expected something alot more positive and helpful from him. So now I have an appointment with the pain clinic, and was wondering if anyone has experience of them. Sorry about the long post, but it feel good to get it off my chest !!! Thanks for reading.

Ellen

Hi and good morning to you too @Steve58 a warm welcome to the Online community.

I am presuming you have some sort of inflammatory arthritis possibly Rheumatoid Arthritis which has resulted in damage to both of your elbows so they now need surgery. At 63 consultant thinks you are too young and so has referred you to a pain clinic.

Many of our members use or have used pain clinic and most have really good things to say about them. They only deal with pain; it is their specialism so are 'experts'.

you can pop 'pain clinic' into the search (on the black bar on the top of the page), but I found this thread:

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/54175/upcoming-pain-clinic-appointment

I am going to attach a link about managing your pain just in case there is something new you can try:

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

Very best wishes

Ellen.

frogmorton

Hi @Steve58

I have to post to you because i feel this is so unfair to leave you in pain and insist you wait 10 years for surgery!

My youngest daughter's shoulder collapsed when she was 18 due to cancer treatment. We finally saw a consultant who gave us no hope just to wait because she was too young. I sort of get it at 18, but still life is for living! she would need many revisions throughout her life.

We left the clinic all of us in tears her, me and my husband. He gave us no hope at ALL. She was in agony with a useless arm at 18 and was training to be a hairdresser.

So we got a second opinion a completely different surgeon far more positive and she had the surgery at 19. She has full range of movement and knows there will be more surgeries in future of course and they may get progressively more difficult on top of previous ones.

We have no regrets she got her life back and is now 24 and 😊

You take care now

Toni x

Steve58

Hi Toni, Thanks for your reply. I'm glad that your daughter is doing well now ! There's not been many times in my life that I felt as low as I did when coming away from my appointment with orthopedics. Even though my general health is ok, the consultant was basically saying that I could be pain for the rest of my life. Sixty three + ten years and there's always a chance that at that age other things could go wrong or that I may not even be around by then ( touch wood that won't be the case ). My next appointment at rheumatology will be a face to face with the consultant that referred me back to orthopedics and she obviously thought that my situation was important enough to be addressed by them. Soooo, I'll be putting my best moaning hat on, and see what she has to say.

Anyway, for the time being...ONWARDS !!!!

Steve