I’m posting this in GQ, hoping to get responses other than anecdotal.
I have pretty severe arthritis in one hip. It varies from completely asymptomatic, to quite painful - causing a pronounced limp and feeling of instability. What confuses me is that I have been unable to identify any cause(s) for the exacerbations. Looking on-line, it is said that that weather and activity can cause exacerbations, but I have been unable to identify any such correlation. Maybe it could be something like barometric pressure, that I am not readily aware of, as opposed to temperature, precip, etc. Other sites list factors such as stress, but my personal situation has not really changed significantly over the past 4-5 years, and certainly does not change day-to-day correlating to the waxing and waning of symptoms.
It can be asymptomatic (or nearly so) for several days, and then one time that I stand from a chair, or on one particular step while walking the dog, it suddenly becomes painful. I bike and golf pretty regularly. I live in the Chicago area, so over the past 4-5 years I have tried to correlate my symptoms through a wide range of weather.
Haven’t tracked it, but my diet is pretty constant. In general, we eat a pretty - uh - unadventuresome, pretty low meat diet. Sometimes we go a tad heavy on the ice cream, but that’s about it.
Well, it’s something to think about. Maybe the next time it flares, consider what you’d eaten the day before? Also consider your level of hydration that day too.
Yeah - I guess I could track sleep, diet, and food intake.
-But I RARELY eat out. What we cook at home really doesn’t vary too much week to week. Sure, maybe one day we’ll have burgers, but then it will be several days of rice and beans or lentil soup. Not a lot of crazy rich food.
-I tend to drink a TON of water. So much that I pee terribly frequently.
-I sleep pretty well, and get a good 8-9 hrs just about every night.
Even today, this morning it hurt really bad, so I popped 2 aspirin - which I infrequently do. Then, about 6 hrs later, we were going to walk the dog and it hurt pretty badly. I did not take any meds, and it went away and I walked the dog without difficulty. Now I’m completely symptom-free.
I just sorta feel it is a fool’s errand to try to chart every possible factor or combination of factors that makes it hurt when I get out of my chair at 10:30 am, when it didn’t hurt at 8:30 am or 12:30 pm. - and all I did since 6:30 am was sit in that chair and work (besides eating/drinking, bathroom, dog in/out, etc. Not sitting there motionless like a lump.)
What I read is that the muscles attached to the joint will pull on the damaged joint bc they are conserving warmth or reacting to the weather in some way, and so you get a painful joint. Also there can be referred pain from that event. IANAMP, so take it with a grain of salt. I do not have a cite for this, either, but I am sure someone will weigh in with better info.
It took me years to pinpoint it, but gluten is the variable contributor to pain in my arthritic knees. The list of foods and other things that cause inflammation is long and not consistent between individuals.
A long past injury could be flaring up?
Sleep on your side that acts up most nights?
And then there’s gout, I hope not. Seems your diet wouldn’t activate it but a uric acid blood test would rule that out or put it in play.
Falling barometric pressure is fairly well correlated to my sinus headaches which is an inflammation thing similar to arthritis. My then wife noticed that I had the worst morning headaches when there was a clear night followed by a gloomy morning.
Thank you for this thread! I have wondered the same things. I have had access to 2 medical people who were tasked with treating this issue – one was a PA (Physician’s Assistant) who did not care to commit to anything, even though I said I was fine with educated speculation; the other was my physical therapist who has a doctorate in that discipline. His solutions were all about strengthening the muscles (not always the ones you would think) that support the hip and thigh. He also worked on increasing the space inside the joint. These all helped me (anecdotal). But since I stopped seeing him, I also stopped doing the exercises, and my general level of pain has stabilized somewhat, possibly as I have gotten used to it. I use Tylenol occasionally for pain, the effectiveness of which is variable, and I have a prescription NSAID that I take even more rarely.
I am fortunate to live in San Francisco, where the weather is very mild in all seasons. We do get barometric pressure changes, I’m sure, but I’ve never paid attention to them, so I will be interested to hear if anyone finds a correlation there. Of course, there’s nothing one can do about things like weather, and I find that anticipation can just make the results worse.
I’ve had osteoarthritis since my late teens - so close to 50 years.
A long time ago I had the waxing and waning phenomenon but the last 20 or more years have been purely waxing unless I manage to get medications for relief.
Right now I’ve had severe pain for about a month. I have a doctor appointment on November 4th and hope I will get some prednisone for temporary relief.
I’ve been taking upwards of 10/12 ibuprofen daily to keep it down a notch. Not supposed to take it at all because I am on blood thinners but one has to do what can to survive.