OA and tendonitis

Hi everyone, I'm a newbie to the forum & hope all's going well with lockdown .My journey with the invisible pain started on 5th March 2019 when I had to call into work sick as I could not walk.After the 2 week wait to see the Doc who sent me for x-rays on my knees I was then passed onto a physiotherapist but physio just made the knees & quadriceps worse , so after a bit of digging about with a private healthcare insurance through work I was given a choice of 11 orthopaedic consultants. After picking the 1 best for me I was given a MRI scan & a x-ray. I'n june 2019 the consultant told me due to My work I had patellar tendonitis on my left knee , quadricep tendinitis on my right knee which was down to the job I was doing & just to finish my day off osteoarthritis in both hips.My employer was not concerned & paid me 3 weeks sick money then I was put onto statutory SICK pay for 28 weeks , dragged into long term sickness management meeting every 4 weeks , then made to see a works nurse who advised them in August 2019 I would be off at least another 6 to 12 months them my sick pay was maxed out & I was then put on ESA.The DWP still require a Docs sick note every 3 months & my employers still wanted meetings every 4 weeks + a sick note even though they had not paid me for months & just to run a bit of salt in the sounds sacked me for gross misconduct on the 17/01/20 for not receiving a sick note & missing meetings with management even though their nurse had given them a written report advising I would be off.

Any person who does not suffer from the OA & tendonitis would not understand the pain that gets you day & might , sleeping is a Knapp here & there 2 hours MAX day in day out. Naproxen does work for a hour or so I stopped taking it & put up with the pain which I try to control by diet , no dairy etc I found suits me. Exercise is a struggle from my hips down but I do eccentric exercise routinely for my upper body , press ups against the stairs so I'm not on the floor else I couldn't get back up & a resistance band I use for stretching. As for getting out & about for a walk in doing about 2000 STEPS once a week that takes me about 30 minutes which is a downer because fit & working I would do 20000 & manually be moving 100+ tonne each 10 hour shift any 4 from 7 days so being down to my level now has been hell that has turned me into a right miserable old git of 57 . That's my first of many rants any comments or advice welcome👍Take care everyone & stay home , all the best Gonzo👍✊

I have psoriatic and osteoarthritis and do occasionally get blasts of Achilles tendonitis and plantaar fasciitis, all caused by my failure to keep up with the stretches I need to do regularly to keep them at bay. I do them, things feel better, I stop doing them, it comes back: I'm sure I will learn one day.

I have around forty affected joints and know that exercise is key but it has to be the right kind, little and often. I began arthritis 24 years ago and retired around six years ago but I was self-employed which was a boon. OK, so I earned nothing for weeks or months at a time after operations but you prepare for the rainy days. It must be harder for those who are at the beck-and-call of employers who, naturally, require reliable employees. Reliability and arthritis do not go together but they should not be mutually exclusive. The world may be slightly different after covid. We can hope. DD