For millions of Americans who have some form of arthritis or a related disease, pain is chronic, or long-lasting. Technically, pain is considered chronic when it lasts three to six months or longer, but arthritis pain can last a lifetime. It may be consistent, or it can come and go. Repetitive motion, such as typing at a keyboard for hours or walking through the mall during holiday shopping season can cause pain.
Chronic pain can make it hard to perform daily activities like cleaning the house, dressing or looking after your kids. However, there are ways to effectively managing chronic arthritis pain, from taking appropriate medication, to staying active, to maintaining a positive outlook. Meet three people who refuse to let arthritis pain run their lives.
Mona Gardner: Managing Pain With Medication
Three years ago, Mona Gardner was active and healthy, working full time teaching research classes at a local university. One day, she woke up with terrible pain in her hands, feet and skin.
“I couldn’t even open the doors of my car,” says Gardner, 74, of Littleton, Colo. Her primary-care physician dismissed her symptoms at first as the typical aches and pains that one might expect at her age, but Gardner was unconvinced. “I said, no. I have friends who pop two Aleve pills in the morning and then they’re good to go. That was not working for me.”
Pressing for a more accurate diagnosis, Gardner went through a series of blood and imaging tests and learned she had rheumatoid arthritis, a condition in which the body’s immune system goes awry and begins to attack its own tissues, triggering painful inflammation in the joints. Gardner was stunned to learn she had this disease, which typically emerges in younger people.
“I never want to feel pain like that again!” says Gardner, recalling her early flares of joint inflammation before going on disease-modifying drugs for her RA. “My skin hurt. My joints all ached. I could have probably been overtaken by depression at the time. I couldn’t do anything. If it wasn’t for my husband, I don’t know what I would have done. My hands hurt so badly, I couldn’t buckle a belt. He had to do that too. I don’t want to feel like that ever again.”
Instead of giving in to her pain, Gardner sought treatment from a rheumatologist. She began taking the disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs methotrexate and hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) to control the physical processes that cause her inflammation. She also pushed herself to stay physically active by taking Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program and dance classes and continuing her work at the Regis University.
Gardner also made an effort to maintain a positive attitude about living with arthritis. “I thought, ‘I am not going to just sit here. If I have to deal with this pain when I am doing my exercise classes, that’s what I’ll do!’ The lucky thing for me is that I am not expected to move around a lot at my age. But I want to!” she says.
Is it possible to have OA AND RA?
I am schedule to have surgery on my foot in August 2012 to help the joint that is causing the worst of my foot pain. But at some point they can't keep doing surgery they'll have to stop and let it be.
I can't take NSAIDS so I'm on Vicodin just 2 pills a day which are not enough. I'll see the Rheumatologist next week about the newest joint to become painful and disfigured.
I workout both on a treadmill and in the pool. But I do it in pain every day. I've worked out at least an hour a day 5-7 days a week. Joined weight watchers to shed the pounds too.
I just feel defeated some days living with chronic pain. I keep active and go out with friends to enjoy my life to the fullest.
Thanks for being here to let me vent!
I am too you to file for disability and I am too young to retire. So I am in that in-between stage right now of enduring all of this pain.
I guess today is just one of those days I wish I could stay in bed and never leave the house days, but I have to work.
I am so afraid that one day I am going to wake up and I just won't be able to get out of bed, but until that time, I guess I just have to deal with it and keep moving.
Thanks for letting me vent!
I've replaced "exercise" with "movement" to widen my selection of ways to keep my joints and muscles as flexible and strong as I'm able to do.
No matter how an article is written, I always take it "under advisement" until I can figure out how it might realistically work for me. So there's no need for frustration on my part, just gentle consideration of whether anything else will become part of my routine for management of that day's pain level.
I take my meds, I regularly visit my docs, I exercise when I can, I write in a journal, I try to keep busy to keep my mind off the pain and the fear and the fatigue. What is happening is seeing less and less of my family and friends, doing less and less of what I love to do and a decrease in quality of life.
I try to remain positive, but I am depressed and I am angry. I lost my job because of the pain, depression and fatigue and often times feel worthless. Sometimes I don't want to live.
Arthritis flare ups are really a pain in the a$$ when I lose a day or two due to not being able to use a limb and it takes me twice as long to do the things that I absolutely have to do. Enough already, time to switch drugs for RA.
Life is not easy, when I go out my husban has to push me around in a wheelchair ... he's 71 and I'm 225. Good thing he's healthy and has always been physically active.
I have an RA Dr. that really listens and takes time to hear my concerns.He does seem to care and understand my condition.
Please Arthritis Today...take a few moments & check out the "American Pain Foundation" there are thousands/millions of suffering Americans living with chronic dibilitating pain everyday, with so many having to fight just to get a Dr. to hear/believe them...let alone their own family &/or friends!! So sad...
AND NECK I TAKE ADVIL IN THE NIGHT
Thanks for saying what needed to be said better than I could!
It is frustrating to be misunderstood by friends & family and to feel isolated by pain, fatigue & chronic illness. That an article like this came from the very group we hope will not only support & educate us, but conduct research on our behalf is disappointing.
I know the AF can do better.
I understand your exasperation. For the past three years, I have suffered such pain that I can only stay on my feet for 2 - 5 min. The pain is excruciating and there is no way to ignore it and go on with life. I have seen six different doctors and all said the same thing. It's just osteoarthritis and nothing can be done about it.
I have tried meds., exercise, physical therapy, acupuncture, and massage. I have been relegated to sitting in a recliner for most of my days. I cannot take care of my family or my home, nor look forward to the traveling my husband and I had planned to do upon retirement.
I try to be positive about life, but it can be a real challenge.
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