Living with stiffness

Baloo

Strangely enough I don't know much about stiffness. I wake up stiff it wears off by lunchtime. But the stiffness is just as weird as ever. At night it can come on like a flare up and is quite a disaster when it does, I can barely do anything without cursing and swearing. Sometimes I am tempted to have a beer or something but I know its nothing to do with it.

Whats happening is I just live with it.

I can live with pain too, but for pain I take painkillers and it takes away the majority of the aches and I find the muscles get stronger. So how come I am living with stiffness?

Fran54

@Baloo I think stiffness affects everyone differently. Like you I wake up stiff in the morning and it helps if I do a few gentle stretching movements. Other times I think the weather triggers it in my legs when it is cold and wet. As well as taking my usual medication I sometimes top it up with a paracetamol which seems to ease it a bit and as you say we just have to live with it and hope the next day will be easier and kinder to ourselves.

Baloo

@Fran54 I think you may be right the stiffness will come and go.

My experience of NSAIDS is a bit limited to what most everyday people take but it seems to be high time to review what I am taking. I think I will be off to the chemist about stiffness and see what they say.

Emmasknackeredjoints

@Baloo hi there. When you speak of stiffness, are you able to move the joint or does it lock in position until realises. I get terrible flares of intense "locked up joints " takes about 6 hrs before I can move it agin. So painful yet the doctors look at me as if I'm the only human on planet earth to say this. I feel such a fool at times.

Baloo

@Emmasknackeredjoints no I don't lock up, but the stiffness feels like being half paralysed when it comes on. It prevents simple things from happening like tidying up in the evening.

I am inclined to try and answer the most obvious question on the planet 🌐 , am I taking anything for it.

So far the answer is no because I thought my painkillers would be enough, but I am aware that different painkillers act in different ways, so there might be another painkiller that will be helpful to take, just for stiffness.

I still haven't done much about it, and don't fancy a trip to the chemist just yet at my speed, so I think I will try some relatively fast acting painkiller that I normally use for local aches and pains, and see what it does.

Baloo

The weekend arrives and I am feeling a bit stiff and sleepy. Usually this means spending half the first day of the weekend in bed sleeping it off. I took something (extra) for stiffness I would normally take, and I think maybe I slept better. Who knows.

I logged 7.5 hours sleep in two sessions with some periods of deep sleep and a sleep score of 80. Looking back this score doesn't happen very often so maybe I should try it again next week and see what happens.

Trish9556

Hi @Baloo

I have terrible stiffness with my hip, I wake up at silly o'clock and invariably don't get back to sleep. I generally potter around to try and ease the stiffness (hot baths at silly o'clock not recommended :) ) have a hot chocolate, read or do my jigsaw or listen the radio on my headband with earphones in then after about 45 minutes I try to get back to sleep. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I use my stick and sometimes I use my crutches. Stiffness during the day is eased by the same treatment but without the hot chocolate lol.

We will all agree that this stupid arthritis that causes us all so many pains and days of misery positivly stinks!!

Take Care,

Trish

(9 days and counting…anyone got a time machine? :) )

Baloo

Just enough time for one more jigsaw puzzle

Emmasknackeredjoints

The stiffness, is so painful. Yet no doctor understands me when I tell them. I was thinking I can't be the only human on the earth with this..... surely.

When my joints lock up in a painful spasm I'm stuck for hrs .

Trish9556

@Baloo

My best friend bought me a lovely one for my birthday which I'm itching to do but I'm keeping it for recovery :)

trish xx

Baloo

@Emmasknackeredjoints joint locking for a long time sounds a bit difficult to work out.

One thing I have tried with a stiff neck is a warm wrap or a cold wrap over my shoulders overnight, but ended up concluding it was better than nothing.

I seem to have an aversion to sticking on anything cold so I only tried cold a few times not enough to really test it out.

I tried submerging my hands in warm water and kind of think it helped but standing there with my hands in a bowl doesn't really appeal to me very much.

Baloo

These stiffness flare ups seem to be like trying to predict a volcanic erruption.🏔️⛰️🌋 I had another one last night so after a completely wasted evening of aching and sleeping and groaning I decided to hit it with an ibuprofen. It seemed to work by around 03:00 pm but its not what I would normally use the drug for. The volcano is quite dormant this morning.

stickywicket

I'm pleased about that last sentence, @Baloo . Maybe you could have a chat with your GP, practice nurse or pharmacist about when to use which of your pain relieving meds. I hope the volcano is now dormant.

Baloo

Yes @stickywicket I have a handle on it now. I do things by checklist, and makes totally obvious when a flare up stops me dead. Not so obvious what meds would assist but at least one so far maybe, if the doc agrees.

Baloo

One month on and I have been caught out by a remission. Nothing specific wants to ache.

I had a noticeable attack of achey bones all over instead, so I tried an ibuprofen again and have to say it was disappointing this time, there seemed to be no impact.

I know an early night to sleep it off seems to help so I am thinking for the next big ache to wrap up warm and try to sweat it out. Big dressing gown, hot drink, pack myself off to bed early. Hot as I can make it.

Baloo

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/comment/722036#Comment_722036

This might be interesting because this morning my elbow was near enough locked, being as the arthritis is now in my elbows and I have to be gentle waking up to get them going.

But then I thought, hang on a minute, I wonder why my elbow was so locked up.

I have just started a ketosis diet for diabetes, and the way this is supposed to work the body starts burning fat for fuel instead of carbohydrate, and to begin with there is water loss as well. Something has to lubricate the joints so maybe the diet has taken it away.

So I went and weighed myself, and sure enough I had lost 1kg.

Im not saying there is a strong or terrible connection between dieting and joint lubrication, it was just very striking I lost weight and my elbow was suddenly stiff enough to be nearly locked.