Osteoarthritis

[LJaydow]

I am 25, and ever since I was about 10/11 have had clicky hips one of which partially dislocates, and I have been very flexible since then. It wasnt painful then, and I did gymnastics and all seemed to be fine.

Later in life at around 14/15, my hip started hurting and crunching and I had an X-Ray done to see if I had hip dysplasia. There was nothing wrong with the bone, but the Drs said I had "cartilage wear and tear". I never followed it up again, I thought wear and tear was just normal. My right hip would hurt more than my left, and damp weather would aggravate it further, as would being on my feet for long periods of time, and using the joints a lot. they would feel very weak and floppy and would crunch when walking, and the pain would extend down the right thighbone.

I started doing secretarial work at 18, and have done since then. My wrists have started hurting too, mainly my right one again which today wont support my weight and hurts when I actually move it. They began as really deep aches, and now are bigger deep aches that standard painkillers will not touch. My wrists click and crunch, and feel "frozen" sometimes, and again with damp weather and a lot of use they really hurt.

I saw my GP a few months back, as I was waking up actually crying because my bed springs dig into my hips and it is really painful. they ran blood tests to check for the Rheumatoid factor. Turns out its not rheumatoid arthritis. I saw them again and they asked for the symptoms etc and came up with Osteoarthritis and have prescribed Naproxen in the morning and night, and Tramadol at night.

As it stands, my wrist will "give out" if I try and lift anything heavy (I cant pick my son up today for example), it creaks and crunches when I move it, and there is pain on moving it too. the pain is in my actual joint and extending up my arm towards my elbow. The only way, non medicinally, to get rid of this pain is to heat up one of those wheat bags in the microwave until it is steaming hot and put it onto the joint. It burns me, but there is no joint pain afterwards.

My hips are the same, crunching and popping and pain radiating down my thigh bone and now around my whole pelvis. Damp weather is ALWAYS an issue, and I can generally tell when it is going to rain because my joints hurt. The Dr has said that I am hypermobile, and that hasnt helped matters, and that it is just pain management from now.


So, my question is:

1. Being 25, is this accurate? There is no family history of any form of arthritis at all

2. If I do indeed have OA, what else can I do aside from taking painkillers? I am not over the moon with the idea of taking Tramadol every night (not taken one yet), because apparently it is addictive and will give me withdrawal symptoms should I stop taking it in the future.

I have tried Codeine, paracetamol, ibruprofen, diclofenac sodium, aspirin etc but nothing is working now, only the burning heat

3. Is joint degeneration this quickly even possible? A few years ago, prior to having my son, my wrist joints would hurt about once a week, depending on my workload, now they hurt virtually every day.


Thank you for your time reading this, just wanted other opinions seeing as my GP has not x-rayed me this time around, nor have done anything other than throw pills at me.

- Laura

 

[braddys]

Hi :wave:

My OH has every kind of arthritis youc an imagine. he has it all over too so i will try to help

1. Being 25, is this accurate? There is no family history of any form of arthritis at all
It can be. My OH was 11 when he was diagnosed!. It started in his feet. Nobody else in his family has it either.

2. If I do indeed have OA, what else can I do aside from taking painkillers? I am not over the moon with the idea of taking Tramadol every night (not taken one yet), because apparently it is addictive and will give me withdrawal symptoms should I stop taking it in the future.
My OH takes Tramadol aswell. He is also having the infliximab infusions which means he has cut down from 8 tramadol to 1 a day However, it is my understanding they will only offer this once they have exhaused all other options apart from surgery. My OH is now 21 and has just started the infusions.

Other things you can do is stretching after yusing the heat packs. Boots do an excelelnt plug in heat mat ( like an electric blanket) that has proved very affective for my OH.
Some foods can act as triggers as well. My OH finds if he eats alot of sugary food his pain is worse.

Do not let your pain overtake you before you take pain killers as it is very hard for your body to catch up.

Swimming is the best excersize for arthritis. It is weighless and makes your joint more supple.

Tramadol is the highest and best pain killer they can offer you. You may need to keep bugging them for them to offer you better treatment. My OH used the hydro pool for a while but that wasnt so good for him.


3. Is joint degeneration this quickly even possible? A few years ago, prior to having my son, my wrist joints would hurt about once a week, depending on my workload, now they hurt virtually every day.

It can be quick. My OH just had it in his feet but now has it in his hips,knees,back,shoulders,feet and knuckles. He will have flare ups every now and again. His last faler up was in his wrist. He used a split for the pain and it really helped.

We also now have a memory foam mattress which has helped his pain considerably.

I hope you find this useful and are able to get your pain management under control!

All the best

 

[2have4kids]

Hi LJ, I have pretty bad arthritis. Have had it since my 20's (37now). I had knee surgery 2years ago where they scraped all of the bone spurs off. I have no cartilage between kneecap and leg bone and running, hiking and other impact sports create bone spurs and it's painful when the tips break off. They said I'm up for knee replacement but I'm too young so they'll just track the spurs and dremmel smooth when needed.

I don't take drugs for the pain if I can help it, I prefer an anti-inflammatory diet. I do have a prescription for Sodium Naproxen but I take so little of it my refills usually time out before I can get to the pharmacy to refill them. An anti-inflammatory diet is better for me than living in pain though. No tomatoes, no wine, no gluten bread (rice bread and other ancient grains that don't cause swelling), and eat things that reduce inflammation (shitake mushrooms, fish oil supplements, greens, blueberries, salmon, evoo, garlic, ginger, fish, non-red meats) when in pain I take 2tblspns turmeric in a little milk. There are a gazzillion really great anti-Inflammatory foods[/URL] and when I do hike, climb or walk a lot a little ice really helps. So much inflammation can come by way of a crappy diet though, it's worth taking a look at the foods you eat first rather than popping pills.

https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/spices-and-herbs/212/2
Check out the anti-inflammatory numbers on turmeric-it's like that of a drug...very very strong. Plug in any food you eat into the top search bar in this website and it'll tell you how your foods rate.