Diagnosed with grade 2 arthritits

newbie_651

hi, I’ve been diagnosed with grade 2 arthritis in my knees, and neck and recently in my toe making it difficult to walk. The pain has started to get worse and now waking me up. Is this expected at this stage? I’m finding it painful to walk most of the time. This has caused me depresssion as I was a very active person. I’m not sure what to do next re support. Wondering about other people’s experience at this stage. Thanks for any advice you can give :)

Naomi33

Morning @newbie_651 and welcome to the online community.

Sorry to hear your new diagnosis I can assure you, you are not alone.

The following link maybe of interest to you…..

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/knee-pain/

https://www.versusarthritis.org/news/2021/september/arthritis-and-depression-what-you-can-do-about-it/

I am sure others will connect with you soon.

Best wishes @Naomi33

frogmorton

Good morning @newbie_651

Nice to meet you.

I was just saying to @Alipen that the individual experience of so-called 'mild' arthritis is different for different people. Have a read of some of these threads

https://community.versusarthritis.org/search?domain=all_content&query=stage%202&scope=site&source=community

The other thing is to reassure you feeling low is so normal. Many of us experience this too you are not alone. Living with a long term painful condition is scary, isolating and understandably depressing. I hope you've looked at the link the moderator posted about depression.

My own advice is to eat healthily (watch your weight if you were previously very active our joints do not like extra weight) keep moving in whatever way you can. Get informed (reliably not Dr Google) and distract yourself doing stuff you enjoy anything reading TV seeing friends anything. These exercises are good too, well for me at any rate.

https://versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/exercising-with-arthritis/exercises-for-healthy-joints/

Take care newbie_651

Toni x

jonr

Hello @newbie_651,

Forgive me if I'm teaching you how to suck eggs but there are 4 grades or stages for Arthritis on what's termed "The Oxford Scale" and none of them have any correlation to pain. They refer to the condition of the joint itself and the integrity of cartilage. Grade 1 is the mildest with no bone abnormalities and slight cartilage loss, 4 is zero cartilage and abnormalities to the condition of joint surfaces, such as spurs. I'd like to assure you there is light at the end of the tunnel and the good news is the key to managing your condition is in the long term through low-impact sport such as cycling and swimming, walking, physio and targeted weight training all designed at strengthening the areas surrounding weakened joints so they can cope with the extra workload and ultimately provide support for Arthritic joints, you'll be able to get your Endorphin kick at the same time :-) To do this will take effective pain management - I take prescribed meds, supplements and go for Acupuncture.

So step 1 - get your meds sorted, step 2 - do some daily physio and stretches at home (if it hurts too much do a few, rest, do some more and so on), step 3 - speak to your doctor about the GP Exercise Referral Programme. I signed up and got a 1:1 session with a specialist at my local sports centre who put together a weight training programme, she explained how to use the equipment safely and what to do.

Does it work? I'm age 57 with Grade 3 bone-on-bone OA in both knees. I was put forward for 2 total knee replacements in February this year but felt confident to cancel both as I'm leading an almost normal active life so there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Hope this helps in some way,

Jon

newbie_651

thank you so much all for your comments - all of which are really helpful for me and reassuring to hear :) thanks again for taking the time to reply I really do appreciate it :)