Soft tissue pain

Hi@johnuwood

welcome to the site. I too have Osteoarthritis in both hips and my right knee and I am finding this cold weather is affecting both legs from the hips down to my ankles. As well as both legs aching they are also very stiff particularly from the knees down to the ankles ( the front of my shins ache especially) .I do sometimes have aching in my right groin area but wonder if I have overdone it with my physio exercises. I do use a wheat bag to help with my knee pain but I am looking at getting a heat pad which is bigger and will cover more areas like my lower legs. I hope this helps.

Take care🙂

Hi ,I too suffer with severe pain in hip knee lower leg ankle and toes. It is really affecting me I have prescribed pain killers and anti inflammatory meds but they don't really help much.

@johnuwood

Hi! Yes, groin pain is absolutely a sympton of hip arthritis. My pain generally was a lot worse in damp weather. I did find heat helped and also keeping my joints well oiled by lots of stretching, I have arthritis in fingers/toes, and fish oil supplements. Before my hip op I was taking buckets of pain killers: co-dyamol, codeine, paracetemol, naproxen etc but hip was too far gone at the end to have much effect. After hip op am pain free in that area. It is a miracle!

Take care.

Hi@johnuwood

I hope you are having a better day today. I agree that I think the cold weather definitely makes your symptoms worse, especially after this last week. I also find doing lots of little stretches throughout the day helps, for example when waiting for the kettle to boil I do a couple of stretches up onto my toes then back down again and also marching on the spot. It also helps to keep me warm as well.😊

Take care.

@johnuwood your pain sounds very similar to mine and I'm hopefully having a total hip replacement on my left side in a couple of weeks time. I have found the pain to be linked to how much exercise/movement I do, if I don't do too much it isn't as bad, but then my mobility decreases so I think it's all about getting the balance right. I do use heat/cold on a daily basis, mainly when I get up in the morning. Usually I start with ice packs and then maybe a bath or hot water bottle.

Exercise, even mild exercise, does help. Stretching, even just stretching my leg out before I stand up helps. When standing swinging my left gently backwards and forwards also helps.

I hope you're not waiting too long for your replacement, take care.

@johnuwood Thank you. I take paracetamol 4 times daily and codeine at night if I need it but as I get closer to my op date I'm trying to rest more and I find that helps with the pain, but does leave me very immobile. It's a fine balance, I think pacing is important, no matter what I'm doing a little activity then sitting down, but not for too long. Hot water bottles to get moving. Icepacks to try to reduce inflammation. Ibuprofen gel, red tiger balm, Deep Heat and Deep Freeze have seemed helpful.

At least now I feel now the op is my only choice - I fought it for maybe too long, thinking exercise would help. It's not too long since I was running 5k three times a week and always managed 12-13,000 steps a day, now I'm hobbling and managing around 3,000 steps a day.

I was having similar pains to those you describe on a daily basis and really struggling to sleep but since I've drastically reduced my walking/steps it has definitely improved. My consultant said that he thought my painkillers wouldn't be working. My own X-ray last December showed mild to moderate but by August had increased dramatically. I do think my gait is so bad as I'm protecting myself from feeling too much of the pain.

Take care, and I really hope you don't have too long to wait for your replacement, Janet

@john62 It’s the irritable leg syndrome I find hard to deal with and definitely can’t sleep through. And you’re right, it’s a good day/bad day thing, although it’s definitely there if I overdo anything.

just one thing I think might be helping me is that I’ve been on iron tablets for low haemoglobin for the last few weeks and definitely the restless legs have been better so possibly a correlation? Maybe worth checking whether there’s another reason for you, I think the temptation can be to blame the arthritis for everything.

Take care, Janet

@john62 @Janlyn

I've had dreadful resrless legs, especially bad after the op and much worse if I'm tired. Apparently Robaxin or Flexeril can be prescribed and can help. However, my GPs seemed clueless and unhelpful and I am now taking a magnesium supplement and it is definitely helping. It's meant to help cramps as well..

@swimmer60 So sorry you had dreadful restless legs after your op when you must have had enough to contend with. I did try magnesium baths but didn't notice any real improvement, so maybe if it starts again I'll try a supplement. I definitely feel in my case it has improved with me walking/exercising less, so maybe that correlates with your finding it is much worse when you are tired. I hope it continues to improve as you get stronger after your op.

@john62 I definitely think time to speak to your doctor, and maybe give some thought to whether it could be tiredness/over exercising? I've definitely found pacing everything I do helps too. If I walk too much, sit down too much I suffer - it's the little and often that seems to help.

@john62

Yes, I am a keen swimmer and went on Sunday. I use the disabled shower which I like as it has a little table/shelf where I can put my shower stuff, still can't bend over to pick stuff up, that doesn't happen till 12 weeks. Also don't really want people staring at my scar!

Keep dropping stuff when I'm out- gloves, receipts etc and having to ask strangers to pick them up! Though as I still take one crutch, often people help without being asked. So annoying this bending rule, I really can't take the awful grabber out with me!

@john62

Have a look on Amazon, I'd advise getting a telescopic one. The one i was supplied with doesn't fold up and is clumsy.