Newbie Here

firefly54

Morning everyone I’m Sue I turned 70 this year I’ve had osteoarthritis for over 20 years, recently it’s got worse and more painful. I’ve had a few falls due to balance issues I have a meniscus tear in my knee due to wear & tear waiting to have a cortisone injection, I am struggling with the stairs at home I’ve made enquiries about a stairlift & a perching stairlift as the top of stairs are 2” short so they won’t fit one, I’m at a loss as where to go next any advice welcomed 😀

Baloo

@firefly54 I found the toughest thing was how to get past 1 rep of an activity for some proper exercise, such as climbing stairs, and how to get to grips with the mystery of whats happening with this knee thing.

One thing that helped me was to try the leg press in the gym and see how much weight I can safely press. Also some guidance from an x ray and physio on is this activity safe. Tell them you want to climb stairs or something.

Bear in mind the weight in a leg press can be dialled right down to 10kg if you have to and this provides a really useful insight into whats happening and are you making any progress.

I can manage 60kg after a few sessions, and this makes stairs a doddle, but when I was worse it was only 30kg and too painful. My knees have improved over time. This gives me a sneaky feeling I might be able to dial myself up from 60kg to 90kg and be in with a good chance of feeling safe about picking myself up off the floor I might make that my next target.

frogmorton

Have you had your stairs issue looked at by a professional or was it a provider of stairlifts? I was meaning an OT occupational therapist. I think they would really try to help solve the issue for you.

Baloo has some great tips there for exercise and maybe that will be enough to get your knee string enough to do the stairs, but if not I'd really think about getting your GP to refer you to an OT.

https://versusarthritis.org/news/2022/december/how-aids-and-adaptations-can-help-if-you-have-arthritis/

Good luck

Toni xx