Arthritis and renovating do not go hand in hand.  I have gone through back and hip surgery in the last 4 years so I’ve definitely had my time feeling like I was the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz needing some oil in my joints.

I haven’t been officially diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis maybe b/c those tests are not always accurate, but I have enough pain in my joints to know that something is not exactly right there.  But there’s not a whole lot that the doctors can do about it from what I’ve been told.  The medicines they give you for that tend to cause other problems.

I have found a supplement that has helped me.  It’s called Arthri-D-3: www.arthrid.com  It’s kind of a hodge-podge of different things you read about that help arthritis all included in one place.  That’s why I like it – I don’t have to buy a bunch of different supplements though I sometimes also take a fish oil supplement.  I’m not getting paid by Arthri-D-3 or anything and I don’t sell it – just thought I’d post this information here in case it helps anybody else suffering with arthritis.  Feel free to comment with any other tips for arthritis management.

I also try to do my back exercises that the physical therapist taught me every night.  I lay on my stomach and push up off the ground (leaving my hips touching the ground) with my arms 20 times.  And then do a plank for a minute.  Then I repeat both of those exercises one more time.  After that, I do a series of back crunches – about 40.  This where you basically lay on your stomach and put your hands behind your head and lift your torso off the ground.  At the end, I go into the superman pose – put arms straight out in front of you and lift both arms and legs – like Superman!  Hold for 20 seconds.  Then do some swimming after that – air swimming – not the real thing in an actual pool.  It’s alot but it really helps to strengthen and decompress the spine – all good for disc problems.

I also, personally, wish that marijuana would get legalized in the state of Missouri because I think it would be helpful in dealing with arthritis pain.  I have been against marijuana all my life until I got crippled by pain when my disc ruptured – that changed my whole perspective.

I had no idea that the only thing they had to give you for that type of pain was opioids and they were so strong and made me sick I could barely take them – especially while raising little kids.  I do mean – little.  Because at the time my youngest was only 15 months old and I could no longer lift her.  I basically couldn’t leave the house b/c of it.  It would take me at least 30 minutes to get out of bed in the morning – just a like a lightning rod of pain down my back.  It honestly felt like I’d fallen off a 50 foot cliff and was lying at the bottom with a broken back every morning when I woke up.

Once I got up and started moving the pain would get slightly better but it was still really bad – I couldn’t completely straighten my back.  My husband actually bought me a cane with roses on it for Valentine’s day (isn’t he sweet? :-p).  And I’d really gotten to the point where I wanted to wear a grey wig and stop lotioning so people would mistake me for my kid’s grandma – this way I wouldn’t get asked so many questions when they saw me walking hunched over with a cane.  Since I was just barely handling the pain but I couldn’t handle questions on top of it – it would bring tears to my eyes.

So, I had to take hydrocodone (opioid) just to semi-function.  And I didn’t get addicted.  My opinion is not that opioids should be taken off the market b/c some people hugely benefit from them like I did.  I am no longer on them but I used them to be able to take care of my kids during that difficult time.  It was the only way for me and for many people out there.

Though I do look forward to a time where they have different medicines to offer that aren’t quite so potent and I think medicinal use of marijuana could be a starting off point for that.  There have been many studies showing that marijuana cream helps relieve the pain in arthritic joints.  I do hope they make more advances in this area and that more people would become open to it b/c the alternative is opioids – and that’s pretty harsh – we need an in between.  Again, not getting paid by the pot lobbyists – just my own personal opinion.  I, personally, wouldn’t use it for recreational use, but for medicinal I think it could be beneficial.

 

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