My Arthritis

Well I have started this blog as a way to hopefully find others who suffer daily from the pains of arthritis. I am 55 years old and have had early onset osteoarthritis since in my mid 20s.

I had my first surgery when still in my 30s, and have had a total of 3 arthroscopic knee surgeries and 2 years ago, I had a total knee replacement. I have been putting off having the other one replaced. I now have It so bad in my lower spine that the neurosurgeon wants to do a 3 level fusion and also clean up alot of the arthritis. This is a surgery that scares me. I just went through a period of non stop 24 hr a day lower back pain that was the worst I have ever experienced.

To make things worse, I cannot take any arthritis medications (Nsaids, COX-2 inhibitors, or aspirins) due to ulcers in my stomach and esophagus. I keep trying to find alternative treatments and things to try but I feel my options are really limited.

I do not want this to just be a blog of me talking about my personal experience. Although I do have a 4 part post written on my entire experience. I would love to hear from others, and also would like to share information back and forth.

Please feel free to leave a comment.