No hospital health

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tigerice
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Joined: Sat Nov 08, 2014 4:26 pm
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by tigerice on Wed Oct 07, 2020 12:42 pm

No hospital health

hi
I have had osteoarthritis in my back, shoulders and neck for many years, I saw an advanced physiotherapist last year who told me to use breathing techniques to stop the pain, do moderate exercise and moderate my work load at home, I have a toddler, a teenager and I am a single mum, I cannot take painkillers my gp prescribed as I was told by hospital doctor they will make me sleep, I can't sleep during day as there is no one to have my children and its not ideal, I have been left to deal with pain as I'm not under hospital, I am careful when cooking and cleaning as I know if I do too much i will be crawling on my hands and knees, I have a wheat bag and mussellflex gel I use all the time but doesn't help. Please could you suggest anything

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Arthritis Action
Posts: 97
Joined: Wed Sep 28, 2016 1:27 pm
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by Arthritis Action on Thu Oct 08, 2020 7:30 am

Re: No hospital health

As you have young children I would guess that you are also young and therefore would doubt that your pain which sounds quite severe is due to osteoarthritis as you say that you have had it for many years. It is normal to have small amount of x-ray change with age that doctor's often call "arthritis" or "wear and tear" but at your age that should be minor and not be causing this much pain. I wonder if you have thought of alternatives such as muscle pain or fibromyalgia? The painkillers you mention sound like codeine or morphine-based drugs which are not very effective for this type of pain and as you say have significant side effects. I suggest you ask your doctor for a second opinion on the cause of your pain and in the meantime, do some research yourself and read about things you can do to help yourself as it sounds as though conventional medical treatments have not worked. See our website for more advice on self-management. Muscular pain is very easy to treat with manual treatments such as osteopathic treatments followed up with stretching and gentle exercise. Fibromyalgia is more challenging but again, self-management is essential. Reading between the lines I would guess that you may be feeling low or frustrated which is very common in people who have had pain for a long time and strategies to deal with this are also vital.Good luck,

Dr Wendy Holden
Consultant Rheumatologist and Medical Advisor to Arthritis Action.
https://www.arthritisaction.org.uk/

020 3781 7120

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Matthew Rogers
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Joined: Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:01 pm
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by Matthew Rogers on Thu Oct 08, 2020 11:58 am

Re: No hospital health

I fully support the excellent advice that Dr Holden has suggested.

Most of the time if we hurt ourselves we know what has caused it and the pain that we experience will resolve within a short period of time, usually less than 6 weeks. Sometimes once you have been living with pain for more than 6 weeks (as you have been), the nervous system will become a little more sensitive to pain than it should be and this is referred to as ‘central sensitisation’ or ‘persistent pain’ (you can find out more here: https://www.iosteopathy.org/osteopathy- ... tent-pain/ ). If you are living with persistent pain, your pain nerves may trigger off a little easier than normal. In this case, the hurt you feel is not necessarily a sign of harm. You could think of this as a sensitive car alarm that goes off in error when someone walks past.

Persistent pain is very common and effects over 14 million people in the UK alone. Frustratingly, it often does not respond to conventional medical interventions and needs a different kind of approach, but there are many things that you can do to manage your pain yourself with the support of your medical team, your family and loved-ones.

Keeping active, performing exercises and stretches can help, learning to pace your activities so that you don’t trigger a flare-up of your pain as well as setting goals and priorities are all very important and can help you to maintain a fulfilling lifestyle (the charity https://www.arthritisaction.org.uk/livi ... actsheets/ provides lots more information on this). Your GP might be able to refer you to a cognitive pain-management department near you that can teach you techniques that you can use to manage your symptoms yourself. There are also specific types of medication that can help with this sort of pain.

I know all this can sound a little scary, but there is hope and once you have found the right approach for you, I’m sure things will improve.
Matthew Rogers
Head of Professional Development, the Institute of Osteopathy

http://www.talkhealthpartnership.com/on ... rogers.php

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