Arthritis in my spine they say

davieselite

Hi I was diagnosed with rhumatoid arthritis 2yrs ago and have been taking leflunomide 20mg but it has got worse and I'm seeing consultant next week. I've also been told yesterday that I have arthritis in my spine it's all very worrying and scary im only 49 and have 2 young children drags me down on days but hay what can you do

frogmorton

Hi @davieselite

I am so sorry about your poor back. Honestly not much worse than backs or necks for pain. That part of your body affects everything from sneezing to using the loo!

If it's any help at all I had back surgery at 39 when a single parent to 2 young girls one 5 one 8. I did somehow survive. We also did not at the time have a shower so the eldest helped me in the bath. Gosh I took some risks looking back. I bathed using their loo step to sit on😣 and the eldest chucked buckets of water over my head to rinse shampoo out😮

Hopefully 'they' will be able to help you a lot so that you maybe don't even need surgery.

What I do is read, do jigsaws, walk every day even if not far, pop in here and chat to others and generally keep myself distracted.

Hope you'll decide to hang around it's a good distraction here.

Take care

Toni x

CarylW

Hello @davieselite

I am glad you have found this forum, and I hope you will get some good tips from our members. We are a friendly group and will try and help each other out. We appreciate how worrying arthritis can be, and particularly for those used to leading an active life.

I don't know if you have had a chance to explore our website yet, but I am posting below a couple of links which you may find useful.

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/treatments/drugs/leflunomide/

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

Do keep in touch and let us know how you are getting on.

Best wishes

Caryl