Thanks so much for your post
Flutter By. I'm glad I set this discussion up because until then I felt so alone with my suffering:( I'm so sorry you're still experiencing pain after so long. I've spoken to a few women who've been through hormone therapy and many of them tell me that the achy bones go away after awhile. I'm not so sure the same goes for RA or osteoarthritis. I'm now on another drug for RA (Abatacept - Pralin didn't work), which I inject once a week in addition to taking the 2 tablets of methotrexate every Sunday. My RA specialist tells me that my inflammatory markers are going down as a result of this, but to be honest I've not felt much improvement in that regard. I'll be interested to see if there's any improvement in the next couple of months.
I still have pain in my shoulders and hands, and my back after getting a bulged disc (and a pulled muscle just above it) 5 months ago. In addition a week ago I developed what looks to be bursitis in my groin (I find out the test results this week) - very painful to walk on. Prednisilone is a wonderful drug, but unfortunately longer term use can lead to dead bones (which is what happened in my right hip a couple of years ago so I had to have a hip replacement last year). I've been on it before but sadly, had to wean myself off it. I was given a script for Panadol Forte (which gives you constipation - sigh) and this helped a bit but I've run out of that so I can't wait until the next GP appointment to find out what this actually is and what treatment I can get for it - possibly another cortisone injection (and yes - side affects - can lead to dead bones but hey I need to walk). All I can say is, thank God my broken ankle has finally healed. I stopped using my crutch a couple of months ago but am now using again because of this groin.
In the meantime I've been using compression gloves (they alleviate some of the pain in my hands) and try to keep as active as I can (hard when I can barely walk). I also have a spiky ball for my hip and go to my physio regularly, plus doing oncology rehab (although had to skip the latter last week due to this groin). I've yet to try acupuncture or medicinal cannibus but they're next on the list as nothing else has really alleviated the pain apart from the one drug I can't take which is prednisilone.
I will post again on my progress in a few weeks. In the meantime, thank you to everyone who's posted in this discussion:
AllyJay,
iserbrown,
arpie,
Artferret,
Flaneuse,
BlackWidow and
Flutter By I wish you all the best and hope you manage to get some relief down the track even if you're still feeling the symptoms now. I can truly empathise with what you're all going through - so much easier to understand when you've been through it all yourself. I think everyone in this discussion would all agree - it's a shitfest!
