Rachpeach newbie. New to forum hoping to make friends and find support

Rachpeach

Hi I'm Rachpeach,

I was diagnosed with severe Osteo arthritis in my hips in my early 50's and have had both hips replaced at the same time ie Bilateral hip surgery - happy to share my positive experience of this and offer support and encouragement to anyone about to undergo hip surgery.

Recently I've been diagnosed with severe arthritis of the thumb and wrist and this has resulted in my being made redundant as I can no longer do the heavy lifting that my job entailed. Recently the same symptoms as those in my hips have begun to appear in my knees too. The result of all this has meant my weight has started to soar and I've begun to feel a little depressed about my situation- though I know many of you will be in a far worse situation than mine, for which I.m so sorry!

As a single parent this news has all been a little overwhelming and I would love to make some new pals for support and encouragement regarding regaining my old fitness and losing weight and just managing my arthritis daily. Happy to help others too in any way I can. Thanks and 'Hi', Rachpeach

Ellen

Hi @Rachpeach Welcome to the online Community it's lovely to have you on board.

Thank you in advance for your offer to help future people facing hip surgery. It can help so much to be able to ask someone who has already been there😊

I see from your post that you are feeling the same sort of pain in your knees as you did in your hip which has resulted in your weight increasing.

You have definitely come to a good place to talk to people who understand and will offer you encouragement and support in regaining some of the 'old you'.

I am going to attach a couple of potentially useful pieces of information for you:

https://www.versusarthritis.org/news/2021/september/top-tips-to-manage-your-weight/

and

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/exercising-with-arthritis/lets-move-with-leon/

and maybe you'll fancy starting your own thread about your own weigh-loss/getting more active journey?

Best wishes

Ellen.

stickywicket

That's a very kind and useful offer about helping those thinking of bi-lateral THRs. We do get people from,time to time but it's not very common so they usually have to rely on those of us who have only had one at a time. I'm glad yours was a positive experience.

That's bad news re the redundancy and the arthritis rearing its ugly head elsewhere. I hope we can help you to keep your spirits up. Many of us regard distraction as a huge help. Anything that rocks your boat. I'm a cricket fanatic and, since my US grandson took it up, baseball too. I do think exercise is vital. Gentle but regular. Probably not to lose weight as that's mostly to do with diet but proper exercises that help keep our joints in as good nick as possible.

I do think there's a knack (or several!) to dealing with arthritis. We have to learn to be happy where we are. While taking steps to be elsewhere😉 It can be a useful teacher.

Lilymary

I’m in awe of people who have bilateral THRs. I’ve only got through my left THR because I had one reasonably good working leg to do the heavy lifting (literally and metaphorically). My surgery had some unusual and unintended consequences, and I’m dreading the thought that my other leg might follow suit in time. Please do stay on board, we sometimes have members approaching bilateral THR and your experiences will be very helpful to them.