l have facet joint arthritis, Sjogrens, and fibromyalgia. I became bedridden late year. It hurts too much to stand in the shower and to sit in the bath. Yesterday. I got out of bed to look out the window to watch the eclipse. I was in agony. Six months ago I started taking two Narcos a day. Now my doctor will only do injections. I tried the epidural last year butt it caused a stroke. Now I don,t know what I will doo to treat the pain. Whoever says exercise helps or over the counter asaids helps is misinformed. I have had these diseases for twenty five years, it wasn't until the last six months I had days withou pain. Now I face days of agony and don't know what to do

Voltarin Gel works well - (Its an NSAID topical by prescription) and we have found that Nucynta ER 50 mg gives pain relief without adding metal confusion or dizziness often found with other drugs.

Recently, the spray on OTC pain relief has been good for mom 91 with severe arthritis in knees, back, feet and neck.

My Mom in law has osteoarthritis in her hip and knee and her doctor sent her to Physical Therapy. It seems to be even worse than before. We have tried topical oth over the counter and prescription and she takes an NSAID. She has difficulty explaining her pain. It's really a nightmare with dementia added in. She can't understand why, you know?

These suggestions are the tried-and-sometimes-true list. As commented in here, too bad we don't have more nowadays to help with the pain. When getting out of bed is a big challenge, just getting on a swimsuit is an exhausting activity. And surgery works, if you can stand the surgery and the metal in your blood stream and the recovery. Sets you back about a year per surgery. Sigh

Good

My Dad read somewhere about gluten-free can help with arthritis pain, so he gave it a try.... sure enough he went somewhat gluten-free and it actually had helped him, his pain went way down. Now I don't know if it was from eliminating some wheat from his diet, or if it was mind over matter.... whatever it was, it's working.

My Mom just can't get her brain wrapped about it, she was never one to think about food allergies [oh, a little bit won't hurt you].... because she never had issues with food allergies/sensitivities. So shopping for her has been a challenge as she still gets a lot of food that contain wheat.

Thank goodness Chex cereals have a nice variety of gluten-free products. Also told Dad when it comes to sandwiches, instead of using bread wrap the sandwich items in lettuce. Dad never realized that muffins and cookies contain wheat. It's been a real learning curve for him.

My sister, a friend of mine and I have all had excellent results from changing our diet. My friend found that refined carbs triggered her inflammations. My sister and I found that dairy is our Kryptonite. Plus we increased our consumption of anti-inflammatory foods. What I did to figure out the dairy issue was go on a vegetarian diet, eliminating processed foods. After a week of eating really healthy, I noticed my hands felt noticeably better. So I kept at it. One day, I was at a friend's and ate various dairy laden casseroles and four hours later, my hands hurt. So I tested it - eating clean for a few weeks, then having a pizza slice. And I take glucosamine etc.

Here's a supplement I just heard about yesterday - traumeel. Here's a report by the National Institutes of Health about it.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3085232/

Be sure to check with your doctor before taking it, but the results from it sound promising and with none of the side effects of NSAIDS.

Same old Same old after all these years why have we not found a cure for this arthritis, I am 68 and this is the worse thing that has ever happened to me I have never been in such pain, I try everything I can without being on narcotics constantly, I am by my self and have to do everything in the house and out, sometimes I think it might not be worth it and I cannot believe I am saying that because I was always active.

Very good

The very best solution I have found for arthritis pain is serrapeptase, an enzyme thast is inexpensive and extremely effective. It has even helped my 14 y.o. cat! I have no pain so long as I am on it. I use Doctor's Best brand from Vitacost.com and it took 4 days before my pain went away. I have been on it for 3 years now...wonderful stuff! A CAT scan even showed my plaque in my carotid arteries disappeared after a year on this wonderful substance. Check it out on the Internet!