Feeling c**p and it will soon be dark at 4pm

I too have problems with arthritis, when it comes on bad, I use a TENS machine, which I find gives some good releif

Hi Catrina. Sorry to hear your not feeling so great. I don't have arthritis but do suufer from all sorts of aches, pains and general stiffness after breaking my neck and spine in a mining accident several years ago.

Ibuprofen soon became one of my best friends but you have to strictly limit how much you take. Like Stacey Steve I regularly use a TENS machine and would reccomend them to anyone.

Hope your feeling much better soon and can find the enthusiasm to get back on the plot. Take care.

I have suffered with joint pain for years, I'm only 44 now but years of wear and tear as a paratrooper didnt help. There is something in my dim and distant that is telling me that I had a blood test to see if I had arthritis? Maybe I am talking complete rubbish (highly likely) but something is niggling away in the background telling me this happened.
Working in hot countries now, and dont seem to suffer as much, although to be fair, apart from chasing crocodiles away from the front gate, my job is much more sedentary than it used to be. I dont seem to suffer that badly when I am home though??? Confusing things the old human body.

All my older female relatives have arthritis so it wasn't any surprise when mine started up a few years ago. Knees are my weak point, and in the last couple of years my finger joints have become increasingly stiff. I can't grasp my bamboo canes tightly enough to shove them in the soil so I need help erecting me wigwams. I found when it first started up that eating fish helped. I try to eat oily fish a couple of times a week. It doesn't cure it but it's not as bad as it was. I used to get sharp stabbing pains in my feet and had to stop of a few minutes just in the walk round to my Mam's - about 400 yards! That's not happened since I upped the fish.

Rubbish though isn't it? And the most rubbish bit is that you just KNOW that you won't grow out of it!

sorry you're feeling crap (((hugs))) ......i was convinced i had arthritis in my big toe joint ..... some days it's agony ..... turned out to be a bunion ...... anyway if your doctor poo-poos you about what do you expect at your age, i think i'd change my doctor .... unsympathetic doctors do my head in.

i also use the tens for my fibromyalgia ...... i can get so much more done with it

I have arthritis and i am only 41!!!!! i have it in my joints, due to the HMS and this is getting to be the worst time of year, i am about to venture on trying some nettle tablets from the health shop. I know how you feel, my arthritis is osteo not rhuematoid, so in that respect i am luckier than most.

Hope you keep warm and manage to get out and about you will soon be enjoying yourself again soon xx

Hi Staceysteve Tried Tens on my back a few years ago but did not help me at all. Once when I went to switch if off when I was about to drive I made the mistake and switched it to full. The people in the next car thought I was having a fit. !!

Snuffer: You must be lucky to be still walking around after breaking your neck and back, it will come back to haunt you, Ibroprofen irritates my stomach so have to be careful I have irritable bowel and a hiatus hernia, and no I am not one of those people who thinks they have every illness under the sun.

Bobleponge: My blood test a couple of years ago showed no Rhuematoid arthritis thank god.

Lynda66 : Thanks for the hugs, needed that, I also have Fybromyalgia diagnosed a year ago after keeping going back to my doc with aches and pains I could not sort out, I go to see a Bowen technician who sorts me out, it really helps me and I know when I have to go back when I go to bed at night and the pains start in my legs, at the moment it is only in my arms and neck. PM me if you want more information.

Flummery: I will definately up my oily fish intake. I already take Glucosamine and Chondroitin Complex and Omega 3 Fish oil but I dont think it will harm me to take more fish.

Squashysue: Please tell me to shut up if you have already gone into the uses of Nettles before but I looked it up on this website Raintree Nutrition. There are full details of the uses of Nettle Leaf and Nettle Root and the side effects before using and there seems to be many. Hope it works for you.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

Big hug from me too. I have found this past year that I am getting stiffer and stiffer - my ankles are painfull and stiff in the morning (despite my stretching excersizes) and I literally hobble to the bathroom. I also have an intermittent pain in my heel (my doctor was so rude to me almost shouting "..you must loose weight! stay off the bacon sandwiches! go to weightwatchers!"... that I almost put in an official complaint. I had never met this man before in my life, and hadn't been to the doctors for three years. And I am 1 and a half stone overweight, not obese.
Anyway, I digress. My knees hurt too. What I do is make sure I have a diet rich in omega3's - oily fish three times a week minimum, tinned sardines mixed with my tuna in sandwiches and lots of vegetables and friut (I do NOT eat bacon sandwiches, cheeky man.
As I get older - I'm a couple of years off 50 I will consider omega3 supliments and it seems from others that a tens machine might be an investment. I'll also try and get my weight down and keep up the excersize - I walk for an hour each day to and from work. I have a friend who is a clinical psychologist who specialises in pain management. She says that she works closely with physiotherapists to encourage people with cronic pain to keep moving - she said people get frightened that if they keep moving they are doing themselves harm, this is not true and we should stay as active as possible as we get older and not be afraid to stretch and move as much as we can. By all means too, get good advice on using drugs to relieve pain, find a sympathetic doctor and don't be fobbed off by a GP - who is after all a GENERAL practitioner, not a specialist. Its those who shout loudest who get the best service I think.
Unfortunately I'm not very good at that.... I slunk out of the doctors surgery with my head held in shame. I am trying to be more assertive though, and follow my own advice.

Good luck and keep at it.

Poor old beggars aren't we? Still, I console myself with the thought that there are people in the cemetery that never made 59 years and would love to change places with me. I enjoy my life, do plenty, take exercise (T'ai Chi is wonderful, can't speak highly enough of it) enjoy my food and drink. Can't complain (or rather, shouldn't!)

Hi Martha
Have you had a test for Gout? This is a type of arthritis not caused by drinking too much as some people think, (I get it and I don't drink) it is often inherited, caused by the body not being able to process uric acid properly. It always starts in the big toe of one foot, and can move to wrist joints, knees or fingers. It is very painful and very easily treated, with Allopurinol tablets. (I take one a day and it has gone completely) The test is a simple blood test.

hello

you sound quite similar to my mum in terms of joint pain...she finds taking glucosamine really really helps. she knows it is helping because she stopped taking it for about 3 weeks once and it made a big difference. there are glucosamine gels that you can rub in. she has been trying them on her thumb joints and thinks that is helping too.

oh and she is 58 and has been like this for a few years now. My granny has bad arthritis so I expect I'll be like this too.

aahh, just re-read, you are already taking glucosamine. sorry! should have read the whole things, was doing so in a rush

course i wont tell you to shut up, i not like that lol!! cor, i dont think i will take them now, i am useless at looking up things!!! oh well must break the pain barrier this year!! hey ho!!

thanks for the tip xx