Lost

Soulsearcher169

Hello, thankyou all for allowing me to join you. My name is Jenn, I’m 43 and am in a mess🥺

. I’d like to learn from others how they cope with the pain and limitations living with OA and other life limiting conditions. I feel so let down by the drs and now I don’t know what to do… ive almost given up hope.. all of this has happened so quickly, and has dramatically changed my life. Sometimes after crying in pain for hours.. I get so angry and frustrated because I feel useless. And it’s just getting worse and worse…my Orthopaedics team have ad good as abandoned me.

Does anyone else feel as if they have completely lost a sense of who they are and where their life is headed….🙏

PeterJ

Hello @Soulsearcher169 and welcome to the community. We are a friendly and supportive group and I hope that that will be your experience as well.

I understand that you have osteoarthritis and that this is getting you down. Our website has a lot of useful information which may help, but the main thing is that you have joined this community of like minded people. I've put a couple of links in below from our website which may help.

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/managing-symptoms/emotional-wellbeing/?_ga=2.233361240.730760666.1657528103-433569107.1645698723&_gac=1.116439540.1657528112.Cj0KCQiAj9iBBhCJARIsAE9qRtC-vTDDKQuKOi2NlhR0H0hNNlFYRwx0L9mUB7_ZXTUnHv7biPGJyUsaAuoNEALw_wcB

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

Please do keep posting and lt us know how you are getting on and I am sure that others will connect with you to share their thoughts and experiences as well.

With very best wishes

Peter (moderator)

Soulsearcher169

Thank you very much, sadly I suffer from many conditions… I seem to be collecting then!!

frogmorton

Hi @Soulsearcher169

It's lovely to meet you. Don't worry about collecting conditions it seems a fair few of us on here do the same!!

I have inflammatory arthritis, osteoarthritis, copd hypothyroidism probably a few others too😁

Its sounds as though you are having a really rough time though at the moment. Have your team really abandoned you? I hope not or is it that there is nothing they can do yet are things not quite bad enough for surgery yet?

Have you tried a pain clinic referral? A fair few on here swear by them they look at things differently to orthopaedics. Your GP can refer you.

Don't forget you can always ring the helplines they are genuinely so kind I was just saying to someone else I just bawled the first time i rang them I was in so much pain and they patiently waited me out - so kind😊

https://www.versusarthritis.org/get-help/?_ga=2.171468580.508216857.1657344149-1855638952.1594146193

Take care and keep posting trust me it helps!

Toni xx

jamieA

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/58044/lost

Hi @Soulsearcher169

I think you've described succinctly how I felt when this all happened to me. I was very passive with the medics I dealt with initially. I felt a bit like a passenger on a train not knowing the destination or wanting to go there.

I think I've learned in the last 2 years that I need be more vocal in my requirements from the health service, realising they are there to provide a proper service to me. Last year I had to write to both my GP and rheumatologist pointing out that I wasn't happy with the way I was being dealt with. That certainly seems, in my case, to have gotten a positive reaction for me. I can only suggest you detail in writing to your consultant your concerns and unhappiness at the way you are being treated - and ask for a different consultant if necessary. I've now got a different consultant who has been communicating with me and treating me more like a partner in this journey.