Arthritis pain, need suggestions on what to take/home remedies/anything to make the pain...

NSAIDS can be systemic. My WORST gastric upset with NSAIDS was with a Patch. Unfortunately any NSAID enters the system, and that is the biggest risk... when systemic, it can cause ulcers in the blind pouch, and if those are bleeding ulcers, they're hard to diagnose and hard to treat without a full scale operation. My worst issues were non-oral meds ... IV NSAIDS and the patch. 

My doc has me on Vicodin and tramadol.  For some reason, that combo of just half of each works wonders when I have a flare up.  

No, I am not addicted to Vicodin and I do not worry about it.  

I also use flexeril for the muscle spasms.  I find plain old benadryl works to help me sleep!  

Nothing in the herbal area has been of any help to me.  But that is just me. I do think acupuncture helped when I had access to that.  

I love Voltaren, used to take it orally but it is an Nsaids.  However, some docs are prescribing the voltaren patch!  So that may be an option for you.

Nothing worse than the pain.

I wish sometimes I could have had a DS but none of the docs here will do it unless your BMI is 55+.  Well, I did not want to eat my way up to that so I had the RNY and honestly, I am still glad I did.

God bless you and good luck.  Let us know what you find that helps, OK?  Have you tried standing in a shower as hot as you can take it and letting the ho****er relax the muscles a bit?  

Or I used to love the sauna when I belonged to the gym.  That was relaxing.  Then I would pop over to the steam bath.  The two seemed to do the trick along with the hot tub, LOL.  Sure miss that gym, come to think of it.   

 

I have been taking a combination of Tramadol and Vicodin for the arthritis pain in my knees for about 3 years.  Usually half of a 5/500 Vicodin and 100mg of Tramadol. If the pain is worse than that, I just take a whole Vicodin.  It helps the pain, but still doesn't address the inflammation.  My BMI was high enough for a DS (56.5), but I didn't like the huge amount of malabsorption  and I expected that I would get a lot of relief from the knee pain when I lost the weight (wrong). If I had known how hard it would be to not take the NSAIDs, I would have given the DS more consideration.

Lora

Lora,

You bring up a good point.  As usual. 

I am now remembering all the years and all the doctors saying IF I lost weight, I would hurt less. Well, they were flat out wrong.

I find I hurt a bit more now that I am thinner.  Dunno, maybe it is just me.

Also, the surgeon for this implied heavily that this would "probably" help with the arthritis pain.  Hmmm.

I think it would make an interesting study if not already done on how WLS impacts chronic musculoskeletal pain and arthritis pain.  

Yeah, on bad days, I will up the vicodin and the tramadol.  Seems to be the best I have found so far. 

 

I suspect that the issue is just that those of us who continue to experience arthritis pain had more severe arthritis to begin with.  I didn't have my knees xrayed before I and surgery because I assumed (as did my PCP, I'm sure) that my knees hurt primarily because of all of the extra weight and perhaps just a bit of arthritis.  It wasn't until I had lost over 100 pounds and my knees STILL hurt that we xrayed them.  That was 5 years ago and it showed severe tri-compartmental arthritis in my left knee (with a bunch of bone spurs because of a previous injury and surgery) and moderate arthritis in my right knee.  Because of the bone spurs, my left knee continued to get worse, so anything I gained from losing the weight was offset by the worsening arthritis, so it wouldn't surprise me if you hurt more now than before surgery.

If I hadn't been so reluctant (ashamed to press the issue) to ask for X-rays before the RNY, I would have known that my knees were both bone on bone either totally or partially and that having RNY and not being able to take NSAIDs was probably not the best surgery choice.

I also think this is just one example of how physicians assume that weight is the culprit for an ailment and don't really pursue it.

Lora

Ouch on your knees. That is pretty complicated and sounds extremely painful.   I have been following your saga and I do respect that you do all you can for yourself!

Amen on everything you said.

Thanks for all the advice. I'm going to talk to my doc on Monday about getting a script for something. My boyfriend has been really good about helping me doing some PT on my back. On top of this I just started my TOM and had pretty bad cramps. I took an aspirin free menstural relief pill and feel ok as long as I don't move much. The muscle spasms have stopped and I don't ache as much in my hips. I have not had a flare up this bad in a very long time. Thanks again for all the suggestions.

All I can take is narcotic pain meds. They help a little. 

I've had really good luck taking Cymbalta daily for my arthritis and adding Voltaren gel (a topical NSAID so safe for after RNY). I can work and function with that combination. On the worst days, I also take a Vicodin in the evening so I can get restful sleep.

For temp relief when you are hurting like this, it sometimes helps to alternate hot packs and cold packs for 20 minutes at a time with 10 minutes in between.  With severe arthritis, it is a good idea to see a chronic pain management specialist in addition to your arthritis specialist. You need to have a better treatment plan than over the counter NSAIDs and the pain management people can really help you with solutions for varying pain levels.

Hope you feel better soon.

My doctor allows a 15 mg. Meloxicam once a day when taken with Prilosec or Prevacid. I'm almost 18 months out and haven't had any problems with it so far.