2024 52 Card Project: Week 22: Arthritis

[pegkerr]

Several weeks ago, I suddenly had pain blossom at the base of my left thumb. A visit to the doctor and an x-ray diagnosed arthritis. Ugh.

I have been wearing a brace and doing physical therapy. If the physical therapy doesn't work in about four weeks, I will be trying a cortisone shot. Which will suck, but will be preferable to dealing with this pain with all my daily activities: chopping vegetables, buttoning my clothes, pulling on socks, opening bottles--it all hurts.

Growing old isn't for the faint of heart.

Image description: Background: a tracery of bare, gnarled branches against a gray sky. Over this are several shots of a left hand. One wears a rigid brace. One rolls a ball against a pad. One has a clip clamped on the web between the thumb and forefinger. One holds rubber bands between the thumb and forefinger. Bottom center: a bottle of Ibuprofen.

Arthritis



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Comments

[ndrosen]

I’m sorry to hear about the arthritis. Getting old isn’t for the faint of heart, as I remember from my parents and grandparents. As a youth of fifty-nine, I’m still in pretty good shape, although my knees and hips are not what they were thirty years ago, but I have no reason to expect that I will be spared the disorders of old age, unless I should happen to die relatively young.

[dreamshark]

Sympathies. I don't entirely understand what arthritis IS, but it's not just one long downhill slide - it can flare up and then go away. In my somewhat limited experience, PT is completely unhelpful for arthritis, and can in fact make it worse, at least for those sudden flare ups. The flares are caused by inflammation. What helps with inflammation is anti-inflammatories (e.g., ibuprofen) every 4 hours whether it's hurting then or not. And cortisone shots if that doesn't do it. Actually, I haven't needed the cortisone shots yet, but they have worked surprisingly well for Richard's knees.

[pegkerr]

I happen to be on a steroid inhaler for my asthma (although I hope to go off of it soon, as the pollen season is ebbing). I hope to go off of it soon, however, as it raises my pulse rate and my blood pressure, and it makes me retain water and sodium. It just isn't a good idea to be on it long term.

As best as I can tell, the physical therapy may be helping. A little. But we'll see how it goes as I go off the inhaler later this month. I have a PT appointment in three weeks and we'll evaluate getting the shot then.

[dreamshark]

It's hard to tell what exactly is helping when one is trying multiple things at once. With my hip it was very clear that all the PT did was give me a backache along with the hip pain. I don't think it actually made the hip worse, but it clearly didn't help. It didn't get better until I just gave up on walking (which is what aggravated it in the first place) and started taking ibuprofen every 4 hours rather than waiting until the pain was bad.

What is the relationship to the steroid inhaler? Do you think that is making the arthritis better or worse?