Is fatigue common in late stage osteoarthritis?

jastark, celebrex can in increase fatigue in various ways.
Celebrex can cause high potassium, liver or kidney problems anemia, or the risk of cardiac issues.
I'm hoping you have been checked for metabolic disorders as well as autoimmune diseases.
Dealing with pain is exhausting.
It is easy to get labeled in our system without adequate sorting of cause.

@jastark it is definitely the medication. I have had osteoarthritis for many, many years.
All medications that are prescribed for the pain make me way too sleepy. Even regular Tylenol makes me tired.

I use a topical crème or lotion. Lidocaine or Magnesium lotion helps as well as muscle pain relievers.

I am wondering if you have rheumatoid arthritis.

I’m 76. Both my knees have been replaced. I’ve had several surgeries on both hands. My grandma had bad arthritis but she lived to be 95.

Medication affects people in different ways. Celebrex never did anything for me and dr said sometimes that it doesn’t work for people and gave me Mobic an nsaid which helped but started having kidney issues so I’m off of it and had a third shoulder surgery one in 2007, RTS 2019, and 2025. I will only use heat now and arthritis tylenol at night. Still in pt
As with all arthritis it is very debilitating and painful, and I feel for you.

I am really sorry you are going through the pain. Pain is exhausting, so the tiredness is as likely be from pain as anything. It is a real emotional stress to be in pain: it raises your BP, your HR, your RR and therefore will it not only make you emotionally tired, it will wear you out physiologically.

I had to drop out of medical school track as I had four kids and it began to affect my kids, so I seriously study medicine constantly as it is a passion. It was what I was born to do and I love medicine, everything about it.

I was put on a generic formulation of Celebrex, the "more recent" formulation, 15 years ago for arthritis in my hands and a shoulder. I was assured by docs the "new formulation" would not mess with my kidneys.

Well, 15 years later: My GFR began to decline. It may or not be to the new formulation of Celebrex but regardless of why my GFR began a rapid decline, a different provider - a nephrologist I know - immediately took me off ALL NSAIDS and said: "Nothing but Tylenol and keep that as low as possible" and I still have a fairly good GFR at 79 for a person of 70.

Having said all that, if I were in pain to to severe osteoporosis, I would opt for anything other than an NSAID, to include opioids. Opioids are less dangerous to kidneys. NSAIDS are not safe for kidneys, they cause the blood flow to your kidneys to decrease and thereby damage kidneys. Kidneys produce prostaglandins and by taking NSAIDS the NSAIDS decrease the production of prostaglandins from the kidneys, but it also causes a decrease in blood flow to kidneys, which basically causes your kidneys to be starved of nutrients for proper kidney function. BUT the double edged sword about prostaglandins is that they cause inflammatory response: which arthritis pain is, an inflammatory response.

The LAST thing anyone wants to have is kidney damage.

I know this isn't encouraging, but I am 70. If it were me in pain, I would insist on tramadol or some other opioid based pain killer. I'd rather be addicted to that than have pain and THEN kidney failure and end up in ESRF (end stage renal failure) due to NSAIDS.

One has to weigh the pros and cons of ALL types of pain relief before taking something that will damage a MAJOR organ system, like your kidneys.

By the way: kidney damage can also cause less production of erythropoietin from your kidneys, which is mandatory for red blood cell production: hence you could be tired from being anemic. Osteoporosis also messes with red blood cell production.

I am not trying to be negative, but only to educate from a physiology point of view. I am a human physiology advocate and long term debilitating chronic pain is as bad for your entire system.

One must decide what quality of life they plan to have, even if it does shorten one's life. Does one want short and sweet or long and hell?

I also have worked with neonates..and neonates experience pain and a GOAL in neonatology is to keep the neonate out of pain, and do you know how they do it: with opioids. This is because you cannot use NSAIDs on a neonate. The ONLY use for NSAIDs in neonates is if they are born with a hole in their heart (called a PDA) as the NSAID helps keep the PDA open until the baby can undergo heart surgery safely. HOWEVER, the risk to the neonate is - you guessed it: kidney failure.

It is a balancing act with the human body and it frustrates me physicians don't TOTALLY inform a patient when they prescribe.

IMHO: All people put on ANY drug should know all the facts and pros and cons - over time. Especially older patients and very young patients.

@slarson14
I too have osteoarthritis. I had both knees replaced starting about 20 years ago. Both were really painful. The doctor asked me which to replace first. I said to do the L one because it was the worst. Once it was done, the R knee quit hurting. Evidently I had been putting extra stress on the R because the L was so painful. Five years later the R knee was replaced. Now some 25 years later, I had a hip replaced one year ago.
My guess is it is the Celebrex that is making you feel tired. I couldn't take it for that very reason. Good luck to you! Hope you find some relief soon.