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Osteoarthritis pain as well as neuropathy in my feet.

Posted by mrmacabre @mrmacabre, Jan 30, 2025

I just became aware of the site a couple of days ago with some prodding from my wife, thankfully. I've been retired and on permanent disability since July of 2015. This meant walking away from my job after close to 17 years with my employer, and it also meant that we had to sell our home and move in with our son and his family.

I'm suffering with severe pain in my knees, hips, and lower back due to Osteoarthritis. I also have arthritis in my right elbow, as well as my neck. Between October of 2011 and November of 2018, I had surgery a dozen times on my knees, elbow, and my neck.
I had to have spinal fusion surgery on my neck on 2 different occasions, and have had surgery of my left knee a total of 4 times, where they only did a partial replacement.

Long story short, I'm living with chronic pain due to the osteoarthritis, as well as Idiopathic Poly Neuropathy in my feet and lower legs, which compounds my current existence.
I've seen several neurologists, as well as 2 neurosurgeons, and have had every test they have to determine the cause of my neuropathy, and everything came back "normal". ( No, I'm not diabetic, not even close. )

Everyday is same, pain and numbness in varying degrees of intensity, depending on the weather(we live in the PNW) and how much physical activity, if any, that I do. It's very draining physically, as well as mentally. I've been taking 2 anti-depressents for several years now, along with 7 other prescription drugs for pain, nerve pain, gout prevention, blood pressure, and swelling in my feet.

I'm not sure how much longer I'm willing to live like this. I'll be 66 next month, and it's already been a decade of chronic pain and numbness affecting just about every aspect of my life.
I've very lucky to have been married to my awesome wife for almost 43 years, and we have 2 kids who now are married with families of their own. We've got 4 awesome grandkids from the ages of almost 17, almost 13, 8, and 5 years old. Unbelievable how fast they're growing up.
Does this sound like anyone else's current situation in their lives? What do you do to deal with your chronic pain? Does anything help with the neuropathy other than massive doses of Gabapentin?

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Chronic Pain Support Group.

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mrmacabre | @mrmacabre | May 22 3:44pm
In reply to @ericamonique "I sympathize with anyone who is dealing with foot pain. I had my 2nd Achilles tendon..." + (show)
Profile picture for ericamonique @ericamonique

I sympathize with anyone who is dealing with foot pain. I had my 2nd Achilles tendon surgery (the first one didn't hold) and now I have severe neuropathy in my left foot. The bottom of my foot is numb but with horrible neuropathy pain throughout. I used to walk everywhere. I've hiked in the Rocky Mountains, the Himalayas, the Alps. Now I can barely walk to the mailbox. This has completely upended my life. This isn't what I envisioned my retirement to be. I'm 71 and I don't know what to do. My doctors just shrug their shoulders and say it happens sometimes. Ugh.

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@ericamonique I know exactly how you feel, at the age of 67 this isn't the way I pictured my retirement to be either. I worked a very physical job, and put in a lot of overtime hours on top of doing all of the maintenance and yard work around our house. I was even doing the yard work for my mom at her place since she couldn't do it on her own.
But now after everything that's happened I have zero physical endurance, and have a hard time just walking. My wife does the little yard work that needs to be done in our HOA maintained community because I can't even do that any more. It's maddening, depressing, and beyond frustrating.

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marthadean | @marthadean | 6 days ago

Multiple chronic illnesses cause problems especially trying to understand which problem is at hand. I am 85 and have idiopathic polyneuropathy, peripheral arterial disease, spinal stenosis, lymphedema and osteoarthritis. I have been having epidural steroids in the spine but feel that it may not be doing much. I have been unable to find a doctor to help me put all of these problems together and figure a plan for keeping life on an even keel. I am never certain where pain is coming from, but of more importance I am loosing control of my left leg. What kind of doctor can help plan a future, a neurologist? a vascular doctor, a spine specialist, a rheumatologist, I wish I could find a clinic that would help put the problem all together rather than think of each malfunction as a separate problem. Oddly enough I have found that drinking pineapple juice with coconut milk keeps the swelling under control and Advil and Ashwaganda help with pain.

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jamessaxo | @jamessaxo | 4 days ago

So young and so sad.
I am 83.5 with nil arthritis and neuropathy. BUT all my life I have been a sun bunny so I got plenty of vitamin D. Now in my latter years I have learned we need plenty of vitamin B12.That renews nerve insulation. So I take it in form of METHYLCOBALAMIN.
Good luck young fellow

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