Just diagnosed with arthritis

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Stevo70
Stevo70 Member Posts: 4
in Chat to our Helpline Team

Hi I've been diagnosed as having osteoarthritis in my knees.

Inflammatory arthritis in my spine neck and ribs. And it's got me worried that things will get worse for me and I'll end up struggling with walking etc

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  • Anna
    Anna Moderator Posts: 971
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    Hi @Stevo70 and welcome to the online community,

    I see that you’ve written to the helpline, and I’m sure they will respond shortly, but I thought I’d take this opportunity to welcome you to the forum. Our members are all friendly and supportive and have all experienced arthritis in some way so can understand how you feel.

    You’ve just been diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis in your spine, neck and ribs and osteoarthritis in your knees, and you’re worried that things will get worse. It can be quite a shock when you first hear your diagnosis, but at least now you can work with your GP and rheumatology specialists to sort out the best treatment for you. The Versus Arthritis website has lots of useful information so that you can find out about living with your condition as well as the new treatments that are available. You might e interested in having a read of some members’ experiences of how they came to terms with their condition:

    https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/your-experiences/

    Best wishes, and do let us know how you’re getting on,

    Anna ( Mod)

    Need more help? - call our Helpline on 0800 5200 520 Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm


  • Stevo70
    Stevo70 Member Posts: 4
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    Thank u for the nice words. I think they're going to give me injections in my back. Doesn't sound very nice. My back isn't that bad but my neck is so stiff. My knees ache a lot. Hopefully these injections work

  • Stevo70
    Stevo70 Member Posts: 4
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  • helpline_team
    helpline_team Posts: 3,493
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    Hi Stevo70,

    Thank you for joining and posting on our helpline forum, I am sorry to hear that you are worried about the future and to how your condition will impact you.

    I understand that it can be scary when a person first gets a diagnosis but as Anna has said with the right treatment from your doctor and trying to keep active there is no reason you cannot carry on doing the things that you enjoy.

    Staying active is the most important way you can help yourself if you have back pain. Keeping the muscles around the spine strong, will provide more support to the bones and joints and take pressure off them. The more you move, the more the back will keep its natural range of movement. If you haven’t already been referred to, ask your doctor about a referral to see a Physiotherapist, a physiotherapist can help oversee your exercise programme and recommend specific exercises to help, swimming and walking is also beneficial. Also, possibly a pain management programme, which can help you control your pain and teach you how to live with long-term pain. They’re usually outpatient sessions and involve learning about pain from a physical point of view, but also how it affects your mood and emotional well-being.

    Other self-help treatment is heat and ice therapy, heat can be in a form of a hot water bottle/or heat pad, a warm bath or hot shower can have a similar soothing effect. Ice can be a bag of frozen peas or ice pack wrapped in a damp tea-towel, both these can help with pain and swelling.

    You mentioned that you will possibly be given a steroid injection, these can help to reduce inflammation, which in turn should reduce pain I really hope this will help.

    I have attached a couple of links below that I hope will help you in the future, but if ever you would like to call the Helpline on the free phone number (0800 5200 520) and talk to us in confidence please do so.

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

     

    Best wishes

    Chris

    Helpline Advisor

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