Positive thinking

Hello Munchysmum and welcome from me, too I'm 69 and have RA and OA in most joints (apart from the replaced ones).

Over the many years that I've had it arthritis has taught me some very valuable lessons that I would have carefully have avoided learning given the choice However, I don't really see a positive side to it as such. It's a pain. A lot of pains, in fact

I think the key is to remain positive about life in general. Arthritis can certainly stop us doing a lot that we'd like to do so sometimes it's a matter of asking ourselves how we can manage to do the things that really matter to us while letting go of the things that don't. I still go out for walks with my husband and visit friends and family (including the Californian side once per year.) but these days I do much of it it by wheelchair. And take my memory foam pillow. RADAR keys for disabled loo access are good too.

I had my first knee replacements in 1981. One was replaced again about 5 years ago but I still have the other. Hips came later. All my operations have been very successful. I use the wheelchair sometimes partly because of my feet, which are a mess, and partly because, with RA in most joints, I'm not very well 'articulated' :roll:

Knees and hips are major, but very common, operations now with a very high success rate. When you say you are concerned about 'being left in a worse state than I am now' how are things now? How much can you / can't you do? I've always embraced surgery. I needed the first knees because my boys were young and I was really struggling to do the basics. Then one hip broke (RA related) so a no-brainer there. By the time the other hip went and one (27 yr old) TKR died I knew surgery was my only positive option.

I guess, looked at one way, you could say surgery was a gamble but it's not much of one if you do your pre and post op exercises and don't try to run (as if ) before you can walk. Not having surgery is also a gamble because we put other joints under pressure by our poor gait and, if not having surgery means continually taking more pain relief, that too will impact on our general health and well-being.

As DD says, posting on Living With Arthritis will attract more replies. I hope we'll see you around. Again, welcome :sunny:

Hi Munchiesmum,

Let me try and help you with some positive thinking - I know it seems impossible at times!

Not every case of OA progresses to hip replacement surgery or a life of pain and misery. It's easy to get that impression sometimes because most of the people that seek out help forums do so because they are in a bad way. Also, help advice provided online is directed at those in a bad way. This can give a false impression of a very bleak future for those unfortunate enough to receive an OA diagnosis. Very many people are out living lives to the full with only minor inconvenience.

I have a 55 year old friend that was diagnosed with severe knee OA at age 50. He was advised to stop running. He did so, but missed it so much that a year later he returned to it. He's now running ultra-distance races, he runs up mountains, he runs 5k in 20 minutes, he's cycled around Europe. He says he can feel his knee "isn't quite right" but he has no pain.

This WON'T be the case for everyone as there are lots of different underlying causes for an OA diagnosis, but there's every reason to believe that you CAN make things better for yourself. Possibly infinitely better.

Now I know you're saying things are bad for you now. But it's too soon to assume that things will go downhill and not take a turn for the better. At the very least you can put yourself in the driving seat and feel less helpless.

I know a 70 year old lady that was waiting for a THR. She was desperate to get the op over with to free herself of the pain. Within a couple of weeks of self-treatment she'd got to the point where she no longer felt she needed that op. Here's what she had to say:

"The last time I was here, in Cyprus, in June this year, I had great stiffness and pain walking from the car park into the centre of Kyrenia, a walk of around 10 minutes. I was longing to get the THR op over and done with, so that I could be free of this suffering.

Today I did the same walk, and was bounding along, overjoyed with what I could now do. No pain and a freedom of movement that I thought had gone forever.

I have found that in practising Trigger Point Therapy it is a matter of trial and error. I am making precise notes of what works. The Cat and Dog poses in Yoga are helping me, I think."

It was self-massage techniques from this book that turned things around for her:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trigger-Point-Therapy-Workbook-Self-Treatment/dp/1608824942/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1443172710&sr=8-1&keywords=trigger+point+therapy+workbook

There are lots of things that you can try. But I HIGHLY recommend starting with the trigger point book. It really can work miracles and very many trigger points produce pain that mimics joint pain.

There are lots of sources of pain. You can't always assume that it's down to your joints. In a quick 10 min docs appointment there's often not enough information exchanged for him to correctly identify the cause of your pain. So it's always worth doing a bit of homework yourself to see if you can find any treatable pain causes (treatable without drugs).

There's even research indicating that in knee OA most pain is due to myofasical pain (which is essentially treatable trigger point pain). I'll track that study down if you think it might help to give you that positive mindest that you want?

Good luck - you CAN win the battle and get a good life back!