Advice and guidance for arthritic folk

I went to see the doctor about 40 years ago with pains in my fingers. My mother suffered with osteo arthritis in her hands from her fifties onwards, so the diagnosis was straightforward. The best bit of advice the doctor gave me was to keep the fingers straight and they would not end up like curled up claws. I have taken glucosomine and omega 3 oil for many years. I don't know if this has helped or not, so deciding whether to take herbal remedies is up to you. The The arthritis has progressed slowly from joint to joint, the first ones were the end of the middle fingers, after all this time they no longer hurt, but only move about 20 degrees. At the moment, the end joints of my thumbs are the most painful. The strength of my grip in much diminished and picking up small things is difficult, and writing anything more than a cheque is not on. My knuckle joints are the least affected, fortunately. When I had my first knee replacement, I was on a high dose of morphine for 24 hours, and during that time, I had no pain in my fingers, which felt quite strange.

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Many thanks to those who made suggestions. Also apologies to Bill for missing his THUMBS thread.

For several years I enjoyed regular out-patients visits, meeting lovely folk who did their best for me, scans, blood test, injections, finger splints, compression gloves, etc, with Methotrexate being the only treatment which 'worked.' Last April, following a chest infection and being on the clinically extremely vulnerable list I has to stop as it compromises the immune system. Oh boy, did I notice a difference!

For those in a similar situation, two 'assists' I found to be very useful are the Baby Boa Constrictor (small strap wrench) for tightening/loosing screw-top jars, plumbing joints, etc and the Culinare MagiPull Ringpull opener. As usual I wasted money buying cheap rubbish before discovering these gems.

For what it is worth, eliminating citrus fruit and juice from my diet seems to have had a slight benefit.

Jim

Many thanks to those who made suggestions. Also apologies to Bill for missing his THUMBS thread.

For several years I enjoyed regular out-patients visits, meeting lovely folk who did their best for me, scans, blood test, injections, finger splints, compression gloves, etc, with Methotrexate being the only treatment which 'worked.' Last April, following a chest infection and being on the clinically extremely vulnerable list I has to stop as it compromises the immune system. Oh boy, did I notice a difference!

For those in a similar situation, two 'assists' I found to be very useful are the Baby Boa Constrictor (small strap wrench) for tightening/loosing screw-top jars, plumbing joints, etc and the Culinare MagiPull Ringpull opener. As usual I wasted money buying cheap rubbish before discovering these gems.

For what it is worth, eliminating citrus fruit and juice from my diet seems to have had a slight benefit.

Jim