Need Help to get best treatment

[emmazeen]

Hi it is my first time ever posting on a forum, i need help and advise as to the best way to get help and treatment for pain that im in. I have had pain in my hips and knees for the past three years i thought i was just overdoing it with walking etc and would stop for a while and start again but in the past three months iv been in terrible pain and had to take pain killers every day i went to my Doctor and he said it probably was osteoarthritis and you can expect that as you get older im a 49 year old female, i was not happy to think that was all i could do put up with it as im a very active person and i found that if i walked i would not be able to sleep with the pain in my hip so i went for xrays and these are the results:
Lumbosacral Junction:A pseudarthrosis is noted between the right L5 transverse process and the sacrum.
Sacroiliac Joints: Mild to moderate osteoarthritis.
Right Hip: Quite marked osteoarthritis with joints space narrowing and prominent marginal ostoephytes, degenerative deformity of the femoral head also noted.
Left Hip: Slightly less marked osteoarthritis joint space narrowing is also noted with small marginal osteophytes.
Both Knees: slight joint space narrowing.
I would really appriciate any advise on how i should approach this with my Doctor as just putting up with it and getting worse just is not an option

[helpcame]

Regenerate cartilage tissue.
Connective tissue disease.
Hyaline cartilage.
Knee joints.
https://youtu.be/Udq__aSFV6s
https://youtu.be/PCY_U5bOZrQ

[carolanivey]

Of course just putting up with it is not an option!

Sometimes, just the way your bones are put together make you prone to joint damage with an active lifestyle over time. It's pretty common and it's nothing you did to cause it.

Often, pain in one set of joints, like your hips or knees, alters your gait to the point that it puts stress on other joints - knees, ankles, feet, lower back, etc. So if you had some kind of slight congenital deformity in your hip that went undiagnosed, over the the damage transmits to other joints.

First of all, joint replacement is not as uncommon for folks our age as it used to be. I had my first hip replaced at age 37, the second at 40. It so improved my quality of life that I'd do it again in a heartbeat! With good care (keeping your weight down, no high-impact exercise) an implant could very well last your lifetime. Six months after my second one I was hiking in the Grand Canyon.

Having said that, it's always a good idea to exhaust all other avenues of pain management first before resorting to surgery. Ask for a referral to a pain management specialist AND an orthopedic surgeon that specializes in hips.

Keep up with some kind of exercise, like swimming, cycling, and light strength training. Keeping the tendons and muscles around the joints toned is important.

Hang in there!
Carolan