hi ladies, good morning,

i am wondering if any of you have difficulty walking. like it's almost a chore. i try to walk as this is the only means of exercise i can do because of herniated and bulging discs in my back, so i walk at least 3 days a week. get off the bus and walk a few blocks to get the next bus to go home after work.
i find myself being very stiff and also walking with slight unbalance. does anyone else get this?

thanks for any reply
shirley

Well outside of my feet/foot that hurts I have noticed my knees tend to get sore and stiff.

Do you have access to a swimming pool ?? Local YMCA ? working out in the water ,, walking moving around may help strenghthen muscles and help you feel less stiff. Yes. . I am very achy after sitting long periods .. 1 advil somewhere in my morning helps though.

So very sorry that you're suffering with the disc problems and joint aches. When my ovaries shut down abruptly i rapdidly plunged from being an avid runner to barely being able to drag myself thru a slow shuffle. Oh, and forget stairs. Could barely crawl up them. All that within 2 months of abrupt ovarian shutdown. (Also, other painful joint aches too). Between my ovaries restarting, and supplementing with estradiol. I'm almost back to where I had been. Not running high mileage 5 days per week. Shorter runs 3 or 4 days but still vastly improved and pain free. Try taking some ibruprophen? Jzz

no access to a swimming pool, i live in the projects. but that would be soo nice. i don't swim, but i could put my feet in the water. i'll bet that would be refreshing. so i have to find some other way to get relief. my previous doctor says i have bursitis, but i think it's hormones, it comes and goes this foot pain. this month it seems to be domanating my life.

thanks for the reply

Talking about foot pain, mine hurt like hell! Yes the outside part of my foot hurt some times is in the right or the left. Well today I got hypoglycemia and all my mucles hurt and felt weak but my butt cheecks hurt like having a knife incrusted in it, and had to massage over and over, but the pain spread all the way the outher side of my foot and to the upper sides of my body. I'm just tired that every day is something new. Can't loose weight can't execise, used to go to the spa to take Yoga, but I'm soo stiff like a board, after 3 years without improving, so I quick my Yoga. I would like to share with you only one thing that is working better now. And that is my ibs, really feel much better but much worse in others. Don't see the light at the end of the tunel. Not period for almost 4 years and still in the hole


menosick

why do we have to suffer with all these problems...its just not fair...my back hurts...my legs feel weak and i have the unbalanced thing ....and i get tingling in my butt check ...explain this please....as ive said its nice to know where not alone in this...thank goodness for this forum.

I'm having trouble with my right ankle end up hobbling home! Have to keep asking husband and daughter to slow down when walking out with them

Hi Shirley, I too have immense pain from my low back and walking has become unbearable. My doc told me the other day that walking was too hard on the discs and to find another way to exercise. I love to walk but I can only walk about 30 minutes anymore and the pain lasts for several hours and I can't sit or put on my shoes after I walk. It's horrible. I used to walk for miles everyday and it was my therapy. Now, even walking around the house or doing chores/errands, I find my feet and ankles hurting as if I had high heels on all day. I wear only flip flops or jogging shoes! Also, I am off balance myself. It's so amazing that I went from being a stealth athlete my whole life to a pain ridden wimp who walks like a drug anymore! You have company on this one........lol Debra

Hi Debra,

I have been postmenopausal now for over 6 years and have just over the last year really had problems with the hip, buttock, and leg pains. So bad some days I don't know if I will be able to walk or not. I take it my hormones are really out of wack this year. Stiffness, sciatica, back pain, hand pain, the whole works. All the doctor drugs and alternatives are way too risky. I am a Medical Transcriptionist, so can tell you they are bad. I have found that drinking one 8 ounce glass of soy milk in the morning relieves most of these symptoms and some days all of them. I also do stretches for piriformis muscles that can be found on YouTube. They have been the best relief. I now have my energy back and have a lot less pain in my right leg. I am 61 years old and care for 4 acres by myself, so don't have time for being "ill." I have also heard of an over-the-counter pill called PhytoB that is supposed to help a lot. I haven't tried it yet, but am thinking of doing so. Magnesium and calcium seem to help with the twinges and cramps in the legs.

I wouldn't wish this agony on my worst enemy. Please try some of this and see if it helps. I am still in experimentation. The soy helped the most because it has isoflavones. This is what helps with the low estrogen. It worked within days for me. Hope it helps.

Judy

I haven't read through every single post here in detail but one thing strikes me straight away: has everyone here who's complaining of leg, hip, or back etc. pain seen a chiropractor?

I wouldn't be without mine. She is uncannily good at fixing things which I would have ascribed to something else.

Also swimming is great exercise because it is non-weight bearing.

Hi Judy, thanks for the advice on the soy/PhytoB and the piriformis. I am going to try all of them. I am sick of feeling like I am rusting from the inside out. I am glad to hear something is working for you. I am wondering about taking something like Estroven. Is that too archaic anymore? Debra

i too have 2 bulging discs at the L/4 L/5 position, and some days are unmovable, thats when i have to take my percocets, yea i know there addictive, but when im in pain i could give a rats petunia about that, and then i take a hot bath.....

HI Shirley!!!! OK, i am aching all over, that's all i know! I just posted a new post on the AM I STARTING PERI board, about my spine aching! This is really to much! I know what you mean, and YES, i have had what you have, and still do....on and off. Don't worry, you're not alone, and I think some of the aches and pains we have are some of the worst symptoms! I can't get up the stairs very well either, my thigh muscles are sore, all the time!

Hi Judy,

I am also a medical transcriptionist until our office was shut down. I have the low back problems, aching fingers and knees and leg pains. I need to type to keep my fingers limber and I use my bicycle indoors to keep my legs limber. I am seven years post.

i am going for MRIs for my thoracic and lumbar - am in constant pain from car accident and EMG shows disc problems, but have also noticed i am now having problems walking, even though i do a circular motion with my ankles before i even attempt getting out of bed, my feet HURT on the bottom first thing in the morning, and until i walk around the house for about 10 minutes, and then every time i get up to do anything after sitting for awhile. if it wasn't for painkillers i couldn't cope, and if they move me to percocet from tyl. 3 with codeine that is fine, a hot bath to soak in, and relief from pain, and my lazy-girl chair. i never ever thought with being so athletic in my youth i would feel (and must look) so stiff and ungainly. once i warm up i am ok, but getting going somedays ... i envy my cats roaring around, they are so limber, i stretch in bed as much as i can. i am starting to hate bed because getting OUT of it is so painful.

Oh I hear ya sistah! The top of my feet hurt...my knees burn (that's new)...my butt hurts, my tailbone hurts like hell and when I sit for a few minutes and then get up it feels like something very heavy is hanging from my tailbone and it is nearly impossible to get up. My hips hurt, my hands and elbows hurt. My back hurts and up near my neck the skin is extremely sensitive...painful even. Last night I was sitting on the sofa, well laying there propped up actually, when my kittie walked...didn't jump...across my thighs and it hurt so bad!!! When I walk I wobble side to side...like a 100 yr old woman (no offense to the elderly intended).

I feel like I am 100...and I'm only 46. I have a 10yr old that doesn't really understand what's happening to Mommy and my husband is trying, but....

You know what I did this weekend, I pulled out a bunch of old books about life during the turn of the century in Liverpool England, reason being is during the depression this was one of the more depressed areas in the north of England, and up until the 1960's - 46 years old was ANCIENT, only the very wealthy usually had all their teeth and some of their health at that "advanced age" ... and believe me, the exact things we are complaining about at our age, they were suffering from in their 20's - it was so common for women to have these exact pains, hips, hands, joints, teeth all gone - so although it sounds corny, there I was all cozy and warm, old movies on tv, ice cold voddie in hand with fresh squshed peaches in it, reading about the misery and poverty of life in the early 1900's, and it seems that we are feeling the same, but at 30 years older than these women ... they talk of 51 years old being "a great age" ...
TRY to keep mobile, walking is the best exercise you can do, no gym-joining, just walking and keeping moving in good walking shoes (runners, whatever) and after a week or so, I think you will feel a bit better, if not a LOT better. Don't give up and stay on the couch, have that hot shower to make your fingers work (that is all that helps me, the scrubbing motion) and WALKING - I try to get in one hour a day. Some days I can't do it, emotionally or physically, but I am trying to cut myself some slack - because I ALWAYS feels better after walking. Take care!!!! AND KEEP MOVING.

Hey there guys:

I am so sorry to read all these stories of body/muscle pain - I did notice that with a couple of exceptions a lot of you guys are post meno right? and a lot of you don't take estrogen - so what is the conclusion that most people would draw - that HRT or ERT would help you - I know HRT has its own risks (especially if you are cancer prone) but if not, it is one way back to a painfree body. I am in peri myself but I take the bc pill and I NEVER have any of these aches, pains, difficulty walking etc. and I feel wonderful and young (like I did at 33) 90% of the time. So sorry to sound harsh - but if you are suffering from all these unbearable aches and pains and do not want to help yourself by taking estrogen because you want to live to be 90 + then there is nothing we can do - my question to you is: wouldn't you want a shorter painfree lifespan than a longer painful one?

Best

Lara Falcon

Hi Lara,

Well of course this makes sense, like I said, I went off BCP Jan/09. My gyne sneeringly asked me "now you are NOT going to ask for HRT or anything are you?" ... it wasn't awfully comfortable. I thought ok, I am off the pill, let's see what happens. I had one last major period. Now it is September ... so are you telling me I can go back on BCP - I can't take HRT as there is enough cancer in my family - because I have a pile of them at home - or do I have to visit family doctor for ERT and have her laugh in my face as well? Not all of us have kind or concerned doctors, even though female, my doctor has been cold and indifferent to everything, even after being slammed in a car accident she said to just take more painkillers and get back to work ...
Suggestions please. And yes, I want a much shorter lifespan, trust me, painfree or otherwise.

Hi Savannah,
I have had some stiffness. I took some glucosamine and it went away.

Hi Susy D:

I didn't know you had gone off your bcp? did you have a relatively painfree life when you were on them? and yes if you are not cycling then you should not be taking the pill - its only for people in peri or even late peri - how old are you - nowadays they are telling people to stay on the pill till they totally complete menopause (that means one year without any period) so that a lot of women are on the pill till they are in their mid fifties and they are healthy and happy too - so Susy my dear I don't know what I should say to you - I do think you should not have got off the pill (why did you) specially if you were in your early 50s and it was doing you some good) why don't you try the estrogen drugs that they give to women who can't take estrogen? Also I noticed that you said in your last post:

i never ever thought with being so athletic in my youth i would feel (and must look) so stiff and ungainly

that many women who were very active and athletic in their youth (like hiking and climbing mountains) suffer many more aches and pains than women who just exercised in moderation - I think the athletic ones strained their bodies more - just my observation...

You have also been in a car accident which I am sure has been 60% of your pains - I do hope you feel better

Love

Lara Falcon