Advice needed

Hi, I am a fellow OA sufferer, have degenerative facet joint disease affecting my whole spine, 3 compressed discs in my lower back, 1 detached disc in my neck, sciatica, brachialgia and numerous other health issues. Turned down for any surgery as paralysis is too great a risk according to the Neurosurgeon. As far as meds are concerned you should be referred to a Pain Clinic to see what is best for you, I have been through the lot with various side effects, some quite severe, and am now stuck on Morphine.

Try contacting the Health and Social Care department of your local Council and ask if an Occupational Therapist can visit you. Every Council is different but an OT from Cornwall Council visited me and helped enormously with the supply of several items of equipment (including a riser-recliner chair) and some advice to help me around the place as I live alone - albeit with my cat! Plus they also write a detailed report which is useful when applying for PIP.

So far as grants are concerned again your Council may be able to help. If you are ex-forces there are several that you can approach for help, I volunteer with the Armed Forces Bikers Charity as and when I am able, we give grants to Veterans and their families who are in need, normally those who are unemployed or otherwise in financial difficulty.

Sleeping is very difficult and despite having an electric bed that moves to try to achieve a comfortable sleeping position I manage to sleep better in my chair. I asked my GP for sleeping pills as I get an average of 2 or 3 hours a night but as cannot work and I nod off in the afternoon for an hour or so and again in the evening he said there was no need for me to have them!!

Good luck getting the help you need.

Hello, I am sorry you are in so much pain; I have psoriatic arthritis and osteoarthritis and pain is a fact of life. I began back in 1997 and have deteriorated steadily because that is how it goes.

I presume that you are looking for the Holy Grail of pain relief, i.e. something that removes all the pain, that one can take more than four times per day because it won't affect any other part of the body and renders one pain-free. Sadly it does not exist, all any method of pain relief can achieve is dull the sharper edges thus allowing us to get on a best we can. The stronger the pain relief the more we are removed from the pain rather than the pain being removed from us, after so many years I am so used to being in pain I cannot comprehend how it feels not to be and actually never want to be.

I cannot help on the mattress front, if yours is sagging then a new one would be ideal (please do not ask for advice on what is most suitable, it is a very individual thing) but the only suggestion I have for funding is maybe one of the local social Credit Unions that are about. They lend small amounts for such things, repayments are negotiable and the interest rate minimal. In the meantime could someone put some boards under the mattress to try and firm it that way?

For years now I have slept with a pillow between my legs (I am a a side-sleeper) so it supports my upper hip and eases some of the pressure on my lower knee. When I am reading my Kindle in bed I have the same pillow under my knees to ease the strain on them and my lower back. I wake every 90 minutes or so due to pain breakthrough, have done for years and will continue to do so. If by mischance I happen to sleep for a few consecutive hours then getting up is a nightmare as I no longer move naturally in my sleep so my joints seize up.

Right, I'm off to apply some voltarol as I have been a foolish woman and overdone things today but it's only the OA that's aggravated and that is more easily sorted compared to the inflammation from the other. See you later. DD