My journey to a debt free life

foxgloves

Re your medical investigations, @OBL, I was glad to hear that they didn't find anything else, but not so much to hear that you are still left with the pain levels. I have so far only been diagnosed with osteoarthritis in my hands. It produces a range of symptoms. Most of the time, it isn't what I'd describe as painful.....more that after lots of repeat actions, the joints in my hands feel stiff & can be sore sometimes by the evening. Every so often, a certain movement produces pain, which takes a while to go off.....the most recent was when I picked up a cushion & must have had one of my dodgy thumb joints at a funny angle because such a pain went right up the joint & it hurt for a while. Then, I mightn't get anything similar for weeks at a time. Of course I don't have fibro to go with it. I have learned most of what I know about that condition from you, & it does sound like a very frustrating one, in that pain levels are difficult to control. Most of my worries re arthritis is that if, like my Mum & Nana (who was crippled with it by her 80s), it starts up in other key joints, I won't be able to have any of the recommended NSAID painkillers because of my aspirin allergy, which means I am not allowed to take ibuprofen orally either. 
Honestly, bodies......they're a damn nuisance, aren't they?!
F x 

badmemory

foxgloves said:

 I am not allowed to take ibuprofen orally either. 
Honestly, bodies......they're a damn nuisance, aren't they?!
F x 

Are you allowed to use ibuprofen gel?  The doctor has just told me not to take ibuprufen tablets  (dodgy stomach) but the gel is okay.  I like it apart from the effect it has on the inside of your trousers if you put them on too soon.  I must admit I like the gel as it works very quickly BUT it wears off a little quicker than the tablets.  I am also not sure how much of the effect is the gel & how much is the massaging is. 

He moved me around quite a bit so at the moment I am not sure which bit of me between my waist & my shin actually hurts the most.  But he really listened & asked & I can't believe I was in there for almost half an hour.  MRI next on the agenda & he said it shouldn't be long either.

Makingabobor2

I use a natural joint gel for my OA painful joints and it does actually help a lot.  It is from a company in Whitby, but they do online delivery. Been using it a few years now. It even helped a lot with the pain when I broke my shoulder last year. If you are interested I can give you the details...not sure I'm allowed to put a link in here

Onebrokelady

SuzeQStan said:

OBL - It sounds like you’ve had a fight getting this diagnosed in the 1st place. I got a referral to a pain management clinic some time ago and it did help. But as I’m sure you know - it’s the squeaky wheels who get the grease as far as NHS is concerned. So would recommend that you don’t sit back and wait - chase your gp for that referral. I’m astonished that consultant discharged you already - why on earth could the consultant not refer you to the pain management clinic themselves?  I would ring the consultants secretary tomorrow and demand answers - it sounds like they have given you the brush off!! 😤 It is so frustrating how hard people have to fight when they are struggling so much already with health problems. Passing the buck should not take place where health is concerned. Be the squeaky wheel is the best advice I can give. 

Sorry you are having to deal with this all.

I'm going to speak to my GP about the referral but I agree I don't know why he couldn't have done it 🤷‍♀️ 

Onebrokelady

Cherryfudge said:

I'm sorry to hear about today's pain - it must be so easy to go ahead and get things done while you can, and find you are paying for it later. At least you are signed off for a while and won't have to keep battling through shifts.

I don't know how the referral system works but could you use what you've written here as a summary to present to the GP? It doesn't need to be erudite. After all, if the consultant's letter was dictated, perhaps 'seven' and 'eleven' could be misheard? It sounds silly but would the consultant even proofread what his or her secretary has written?

The consultants don't dictate anymore in my trust, since we went digital they type it straight onto your records or they use voice recognition to dictate it straight onto the computer, the secretary then puts it into letter format to be sent electronically to your gp and you get an online copy yourself via your patient portal, you don't get an actual letter just an electronic one.
The CRP results  that he has used are from my previous blood tests that the gp had done, the consultant had more bloods done  in case it had changed and the result was higher but he hasn't waited to see what those results are he's just used the old ones so doing those bloods was a waste of time

Onebrokelady

Makingabobor2 said:

Sorry to hear about your diagnosis, but at least you know what it is your dealing with now. Hope you can get the physio soon. In our area there is a massive wait. Hope you're luckier. X
 

I was lucky last time I saw the physio and didn't wait too long at all so hopefully this will be the same. The only thing about the diagnosis is he didn't specify where in my body I have arthritis, is it in my hips or my hands or my feet or all of them. I had xrays done of all these areas but there is no mention of the X-ray results 🤷‍♀️

Onebrokelady

Willowtree222 said:

Congrats to DD and the flat.

Sorry to here about the chicken though. Hopefully the other stays ok on her own. 

The diagnosis is at least something but hopefully they’ll review your medication properly so you at least get some relief.

Glad you’re taking it slowly although the temptation to do more when we feel better is our downfalls sometimes.
x

Thanks Willow. I'm certainly paying for it today so have had an easy day reading and generally not doing much 😀

Cherryfudge

I hope the GP and physio have access to the full results. If not, can you get a print out and take it along?

Onebrokelady

foxgloves said:

Re your medical investigations, @OBL, I was glad to hear that they didn't find anything else, but not so much to hear that you are still left with the pain levels. I have so far only been diagnosed with osteoarthritis in my hands. It produces a range of symptoms. Most of the time, it isn't what I'd describe as painful.....more that after lots of repeat actions, the joints in my hands feel stiff & can be sore sometimes by the evening. Every so often, a certain movement produces pain, which takes a while to go off.....the most recent was when I picked up a cushion & must have had one of my dodgy thumb joints at a funny angle because such a pain went right up the joint & it hurt for a while. Then, I mightn't get anything similar for weeks at a time. Of course I don't have fibro to go with it. I have learned most of what I know about that condition from you, & it does sound like a very frustrating one, in that pain levels are difficult to control. Most of my worries re arthritis is that if, like my Mum & Nana (who was crippled with it by her 80s), it starts up in other key joints, I won't be able to have any of the recommended NSAID painkillers because of my aspirin allergy, which means I am not allowed to take ibuprofen orally either. 
Honestly, bodies......they're a damn nuisance, aren't they?!
F x 

This is the thing though,I don't know where I've got it he just wrote Osteoarthritis and chronic pain syndrome. I am thinking most of the pain I'm getting is actually Fibromyalgia related and the arthritis is incidental. I get very stiff in my hips, knees and ankles if I've been sitting  down for more than an hour so that when I stand up I can't actually walk anywhere for about a minute then I waddle along like a penguin for another minute until my joints start working again and I think that's arthritis, it's hard to to which is which. I do know that the pain in my hands is new I've never had problems with my hands unless Ive done something like trimming the garden but now even holding a book is causing me problems and knitting is also difficult.
My hips are just painful all the time when I'm sitting down, it does go off when I lie flat but I can't lie on either side now because it's agony. 
I can take ibuprofen luckily but it's not actually doing much,last night I put the gel on my knees and that seemed to work better.  I'm going to look up some YouTube videos to do some yoga and Pilates to see if that helps strengthen my hips and knees. I got down on the floor a couple of days ago to do something with B and I was stuck, I couldn't get back up. I had to pull myself up on the kitchen counter top 🙀I am also going to start walking properly again ,I've not been walking as far as normal but apparently walking is helpful so I'm dragging my sorry backside out for a daily walk 😀

Onebrokelady

Makingabobor2 said:

I use a natural joint gel for my OA painful joints and it does actually help a lot.  It is from a company in Whitby, but they do online delivery. Been using it a few years now. It even helped a lot with the pain when I broke my shoulder last year. If you are interested I can give you the details...not sure I'm allowed to put a link in here

Yes please that would be great, I do use Pernaton gel which normally works really well but it wasn't touching this. I'm willing to try anything 😀