I have osteoarthritis in my knees and jaw and I believe some other form in many other places. I feel sooooo old. I have pain in both hands, fingers, wrists, shoulder, arms, back, ankles and toes. I just want to lay down and make it go away. I am not exercising today, I have been 5-6 days a weeks 35-45 minutes each time, but am giving my body a rest. I am taking glucosamine and chondrititin and multis and fish oil, etc. What else can I do? I use heat when possible and am trying really hard not to use ibuprofen, but I am at my wits end. My fingers are tight and hurt when I type. I am a very physical person and need to be in top shape to work, but this is making it tough. I will not give into it, but need some suggestions.

Thanks for listening.

enough,
Try eliminating red meat, and members of the nightshade family--tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant, and sugar. My husband gets the same thing if he eats too many of these items. When you are already having the pain, you need to totally go off all of the above for at least a week to see if it makes a difference.

Im so sorry. I have osteoarthritis in my S1-L1 region of my spine, and understand the pain. Is there a reason you do not want to take NSAIDS to relieve the pain? Can the Dr prescribe you something maybe???

Are you post or peri-menopausal - it could be an estrogen deficiency - have you tried hrt or bhrt yet? it could help - I know someone like you that had the same conditions as you but there has been a great improvement after going on hormones -

Hoping you get better

Lara Falcon

Enough, I must ditto what Sariah wrote about foods that will trigger inflammation and pain. As you know I also have osteoarthritis in both knees and lately I've been eating tomato sauce and I've paid for this . My knees are stiff, the popping started back in my right knee, and it's a chore getting up from a sitting position. I've learned that bell peppers and tomatoes will cause inflammation and pain in my knees. I was eating string mozzarella cheese for a couple of days and I began having swelling and pain in my shoulders. I am learning what foods to totally eliminate from my diet or eat in moderation knowing that they will produce the symptoms mentioned.

Thank you all for your answers.

Sariah and my faith, I will try to eliminate some foods like you suggested. That's going to be tough, those are ones I really love. Tomato sauce with pasta, Oh, that's rough to give up. The same for cheese, but if it helps. it's worth it.

Larafalcon, I am on bcp's but sometimes I know they don't keep up with the constant change our hormones go through, it is something I will bring up to the gyn at the next appointment.

Armywife, I just dislike taking meds. I don't want to start depending on them,but maybe just to get in under control, I may have to.

I hope you all have a pain free day. Thanks again.

Dear'enough'
I am sorry about the aches and pains and really agree with the others about dietry changes.It does make a difference.Also Yoga with its gentle stretching exercise,Beginner's Class,increases flexibility of the joints.Also Col liver Fish Oil is great.
Lots of Luck
Elizabeth

I will try all those suggestions. I may go to the doctor, I have little nodules on my fingers at the joints, and now my feet too. I'm thinking rheumatoid arthritis. Not that I am a physician, but it sure seem to fit the description. Even sorting socks hurts alot today. I did give into an ibuprofen, 200 mg. I have not seen a difference. I just walked the dog to keep moving and now my feet and knees hurt alot. I figure I should be tested so I can do something now to prevent it from getting worse. I take 1000mg. of fish oil already, is that enough?

Hi there - I wanted to know how your osteoarthritis in your lumbar region was diagnoised ? Through x-rays, blood tests or tell me please. I have been having terrible low back pain now for over two months and think it may be this. Please give me any information you can share with me on this problem. Thaks. Cathy S. (Cat-e)

I feel your pain, enough - literally.

Today I went out and bought two wrist splints. My hands are terrible. It's arthritis of some kind OR carpal tunnel OR RSI or some combination of all 3. I'm back on the Voltarol (which I call fol-de-rols) and Ibuprofen just to deaden it down. Sometimes it's my elbow too, and/or feet and my knees have started swelling up again - they did that about a year ago but went down again when I lost some weight. I've kept the weight off but they have swollen up again.

I take NSAIDs (prescribed) but don't think they do much good - also more supplements than you can shake a stick at... same ones as you.

I've also found that certain foodstuffs aggravate it. One of these is alcohol, which is a great pity because when I'm feeling miserable with it it would be good to just get smashed and blot it all out. I tried that last weekend, and buttonholed a guy in the bar telling him about my problems (he was drunk too so he understood) but next day... OMG...

I used to have good days and bad days. Now, I just have bad days and worse days.

oh i remember that pain, my joint pain year was last year-
and every time i get a symtom they seem to run about
a year, but i got it bad at nite, id roll over in bad and feel deep deep pain in
my hips and shoulder , very bad, i didnt find anything that releived it,
sorry, but this too shall pass

I meant to say... in addition to pain there is tingling, not light tingling but very sharp, like prickling really, around the joints in many places - and all kinds of random places too.

Me too with tingling/prickling pains,

strangest areas have been base of spine and one breast???????????

KathS

This is most interesting. I have had what my rheumatologist calls secondary osteoarthritis, diagnosed in my early 30's. Over the years I noticed the pain was becoming unbearable, and in my 40's she had an entire radioscopic body scan done (they shoot you full of dye and it takes about an hour slowly going through the machine to look at your entire body) and also did full ultrasounds and MRI's of my hands. My hands are beyond repair, full of cysts and broken cartilage (sp?), and I have worn wrist splints at home and to bed every night. I cannot have that carpal tunnel surgery, my hands are beyond that, and yes, the skin is tight and they ache like H*LL but I have that hot shower every morning, washing my hair and get moving. I can type over 100 WPM and can never appear to not be on top at work as it is my life. As it turned out I have Osteo (connective tissue disease) in my spine, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands, hips, knees and feet. But I do special exercises every morning to get going ... and until we got hit in our parked truck by another truck doing about 50 MPH (his truck was a write off - says he didn't even "see us") I didn't know what real pain was. Now I have blown discs in my neck AND nerve damage down my spine affecting my hips and legs falling asleep blah blah blah. They tried me on tons of NSAIDS and the big guns, Plaquenil, which is Hydroxychloriquine - and Sulfates, which totally destroyed my GI tract, I took myself off after about 8 months as I ballooned up to 180 lbs. !!!!! I begged and pleaded and tried LOGIC with my doctor, to please please JUST HELP ME WITH THE PAIN, as nothing else helped. Finally she broke down, I take a pill to protect my stomach, Nexium, and Tyl. 3 with codeine as needed. It is a roller coaster ride, and I have no repercussions physically as I eat a ton of fruit and veg, whole grains, but just knowing there is some relief from pain helped me. Nothing else touched it. I am just grateful I do not have rheumatoid - no RA factor in my blood at all.

And guess what, before my accident, I went out clubbing, dancing, gardened BIG TIME doing a full landscape job on my 50' X 140' lot which was empty - moved trees, shrubs ... now, ha! ha! I also feel 1,000 years old. Pain is exhausting. I could have done without that ACCIDENT. It changed my life forever and how I move ... the dizziness since that with the nerve damage is s.c.a.r.y. but it seems to have abated a bit. However, I am ONLY 53 and have a longgg way to go, whether I want to or not. My Joey and my cats need me ....

So in my case, that is how they found what I had, and I couldn't handle the meds for the osteo, but can handle relief from PAIN. Not sure if/how any of my diet affects this. I was physically insanely active up until my early 30's when the Arthritis Society said no more skiing, jogging, weight lifting, heavy aerobics, skating .... and all I am supposed to do is walk walk walk - no more stairs either (try telling your boss that) and NO MORE HIGH HEELS. Sorry to go on, but I live with pain, dance with pain, but my mantra is "so many people are far worse-off" ... and I just keep on going. xo