Aches and Pains

Just wondering - do you get any aches and pains?

1. When did they start?
2. How often do you get them?
3. Are they becoming more frequent as you get older?

Started about 5 yrs ago in earnest after a bad accident damaged my knee, ankle, ribs and all sorts and took forever to get a lot better.

Get them every day worse on waking or after sitting still or standing for long.

Yes much more frequent now. Hardly ever have a pain free day.

Start of osteo arthritis diagnosed last year which has resulted in UK docs blaming EVERYTHING on that. But in fact the severe pain I was experiencing in right shoulder and arm was helped instantly by some good physiotherapy and apparently due to a C5 vertebrae problem. Whether that problem was brought on by arthritis of spine in neck I don't know.

One thing I do know is that the single thing I hate the most about getting older is the aches and pains. Doc says my brain is young and active and attributes that to my continuing working. I would rather swap that for a young and active body and go a bit doolally and just be a problem to everyone else!

Stretching exercises DO help. So do NSAIDs.

Yes, lots of aches and pains here too

When I rode horses for many years, I didn't know what an ache or pain was, until I stopped riding out every day, when I was about 52. Then it all started to go downhill

I've sometimes crawled into an osteopath with back pain, and come out skipping. I find osteopaths know how to correct my spine at the lower end to give me some relief, but it doesn't last forever.

Since walking for over an hour 7 days a week, my back/hip/leg pains have actually become worse. When I've ever had a few days off, all the pain goes away, and yet it's supposed to be good for us? Maybe it's the hills I walk up that aren't so good for my particular problem.

I don't take painkillers, I just take it as part of getting old. Ibuprofens aren't good for me according to my doc, so if anything, I would take a couple of Paracetamols, but it's very rare that I do that.

The worst pain I ever had was neck and shoulder. The doc sent me to physio, she said it was my neck, but I knew it was my shoulder, and she didn't do much good, so I went off to an osteopath, but still no relief. Went to the quack, she sent me for x-rays, she then diagnosed arthritis. I wasn't having that, this was serious pain and it was going on for a year.

I got my osteopath to allow me a visit to a private scan hospital, where they scanned my neck and shoulder. Turned out I had ripped the whole muscle off my shoulder bone, and I have a serious neck condition due to crumbling bones, whereby, two of the vertebrae are poking into my spinal chord, which of course, is not good! When this had first happened due to trauma, my world was spinning, I spent 2 weeks in hospital here and there cos I couldn't stand up, and the consultant sent me home with a diagnosis of *vertigo*. I knew it was something worse than that, and thankfully, the subsequent scan for the neck and shoulder, actually revealed what it was with those 2 vertibraes, otherwise, I would never have known.

I then had an appointment with a hospital consultant, I couldn't wait to tell him I had been right all along, not just about the vertigo misdiagnosis, but also the arthritis misdiagnosis

Yes, old age gives you aches and pains, but sometimes, those aches and pains are not old age and need to be investigated and if you have to wait for a hospital appointment you might as well give up now. Husband has been waiting over 6 months for a hospital appointment for a neck scan, it just won't happen. My advice would be to get your doctor to refer you for a private scan (costs about £400 - £600) if you can afford it, or an osteopath can do the same. What price your health? THEN, when you have your own diagnoses you can throw it at them and ask for help, how can they refuse then and fob you off?

You are correct regarding the hills Helena. Having spoken to many bones peeps over the years (used to suffer terribly with Sciatica in my 40s but that went away magically) and asking them what I can do to help myself and telling them I WALK and I SWIM (that's about it really). They have all said swimming is fine if you keep your spine straight as you swim (like proper crawl stroke) but not if you do 'lady breast stroke' where you hold your head out of the water (to keep your hair dry!) that can make it worse because of the curve it puts at your neck and lower back.

And as for walking - all agree walking is fine and good on LEVEL GROUND. But not up and down hill. Not even on 'uneven' ground. They explained to me what happens when you are walking where you are constantly trying to 'get a grip' like when you walk over pebbles - you clench and curve your toes a lot and that is no good for the back.

I think if I was still living at the top of that heart attack hill I lived on in Devon I'd be blerdy housebound by now! Here all around me is level so close to the sea. I can walk miles without undertaking even a slight incline. And being in an apartment I don't have to do stairs.

When the lift here broke down last week for a few hours and I had to do the 8 flights just twice boy did I know it. My left knee and right hip are still sore. I was in agony the next day. Stairs are bad for people with dodgy knees. And although easier to climb down than up I am told by the bone people it is worse for your knees going down. I was told recently that it is easier on them if you go down backwards. Err... I ain't tried that one! I would probably bump into someone coming up or fall over the dog and end up in the A&E!

I now find that about half a km out and half back or 1km at the most is optimum for me. I know it is good to keep moving but every single time I do more than that I suffer later and the next day.

I get SO annoyed by it because when it isn't hurting I just FORGET and sometimes carry on walking then of course have to come back and I usually know all about it before I get home.

It's why I now walk Bella mainly where she can do about four times the distance I do with her meandering around and back and forth while I potter along at my own pace.

Recently I've even been having trouble getting comfy in bed at night. Seriously considering some sort of mattress topper. A good supporting mattress is starting to feel like I am sleeping on the tiles!

That's very interesting Pat, I always thought hills might be bad for the back and or hips because everyone I know who has had a hip replacement has always been told never to walk up hills, so it can't be a good thing, and the fact that when I've done a beach walk for a week, I don't get the problems. What hasn't helped is the trying to get a grip as you say, on the slippery muddy ground when not only walking UP the hills, but along the sides of them too, and on bumpy ground. There is no hope, and the only solution for us would be to move.

When I've done my morning walk and then have to go down the town and walk again, even though that is on flat ground, my legs hurt like hell, just to lift each one forward, and the hip pain gets pretty horrendous too. Sometimes it's fine, sometimes it isn't. I don't think a lot of people walking around downtown would have already walked 5 miles though would they!

Roll on summer, when I can get down on that beach and walk along the flat for a few weeks, I'm sure it will help my hips.

Because I now don't deal with hills or stairs hardly ever Helena, I rally notice it when I do.

For instance when in bath where martin lives, hills and steps everywhere and often end up getting a cab or bus for a really short journey home. But when at Jens in Reading where it is all level I am fine and walk much further and even over in the nearby park most days and all round town for hours.

This Christmas I opted to sleep in the living room on a couch rather than Jens room as she is on the third floor and I now know how much of a toll those stairs take on me. Rather save my self for walking to the pubs and shops!

But another thing I do now is stop and sit for five minutes halfway on my walks before heading back.

I believe in getting to know your own body and limitations and developing coping strategies rather than just slavishly following doctor advice. After all they give the same advice to everyone who has same ailment and everyone is different.

I think some of the problem is they don't have time to spend long enough when you see them. Which is why the individual treatment and advice you get from the private osteos and chiros is so much more effective.
My biggest problem is remembering not to overdo it when nothing aches and to stick to what I know are sensible limits and keep up the stretching exercises (and probably still take at least one anti inflammatory in the morning) but I don't!

I am off to the hospital on Monday to see a consultant about having a hip replaced, had one done in 2002 now this one has gone. It was going but the accident I had last July seems to have speeded it up.

I also have fibromyalgia which can be painful as well as IBS, this is connected to fibromyalgia.

Good luck Mattie. I have a morbid fear of replacements knowing a couple of people for whom they did not work well at all.

Currently looking into foods to avoid for joint pain and those recommended to help. I already do the cod liver and olive oil and pomegranate. Am definitely going to try cutting right out those they say can make it worse.

The hip I had replaced in 2002 is wonderful, never had any problems with it, in fact 10 weeks after it was done I was dancing on New Year's Eve

I use Cortaflex for my arthritis, I find it does help me but does take time to build up in your body. I know others who take it and all recommend it.

Yes

About 5 or 6 years ago

Get 'em daily

Yes the older you get, the more you notice 'em