All quiet on the old lady leg front

This experiment is way slower than I had hoped! I sometimes get the feeling that either the tai chi or the fish oil is starting to work but then I have a bad day and curse their ineffectiveness (and sing the praises of my oh so risky but oh so fast-acting voltaren).

The one thing that is driving me nuts is that the arthritis seems to have won the war over my left wrist. You never realise how much you like to lean on things until you lose a wrist.

I'm planning to throw some foot reflexology into the mix in coming weeks as I think the fishoil and tai chi have been given a reasonable chance - not to mention the fact that my local massage place is offering a one hour special. It's important to note, however, that foot reflexology is apparently not all fun and games. Apparently it involves someone seriously wrestling with your feet until you beg for mercy. Still more fun than that exclusion diet...

Damn that excellent Western Medicine

I thought I had a big break through on the weekend as I had two wonderful pain free days. We went to a wedding on Saturday afternoon and lasted all the way through to midnight and beyond...in high heels!!

First I thought that the fish oil had finally kicked in as they say it needs two months to really get going. Then I thought that my two weeks of tai chi must have been paying off. Then I remembered I'd popped an extra voltaren (diclofenac) tablet on Saturday lunchtime in case I forgot to have one at dinner time with the excitement of the wedding.

Unfortunately this totally goes against the point of this blog which is to try and get off the medicine but man it was sweet. Funnily enough, one of the books I read on arthritis said that you really shouldn't wear high heels and that no one with arthritis should have more than two standard alcoholic drinks in one go. I think I can safely say that I despite ignoring that advice, my knees and ankles were not worse off at all. I'm not saying that I'm about to start wearing Laboutin heels and boozing every day but I think it goes to show that you can live a little and come out ok on the other side.

No action yet....on to experiment number 2

So we are up to week 4 of the fish oil tablets and nothing to report at this stage. I've had a few very bad days with the old lady legs during this period but I have also heard that you need to give fish oils a couple of months to kick in. I will give it the benefit of the doubt and continue the research!

In the meantime, I started tai chi last Wednesday and have certainly read some info that supports this as a very positive activity for inflammatory arthritis. I am conscious that you probably need to do it more than just one session a week to see the benefits so I am planning to do half an hour every night once our little guy has gone to bed. Now that I have written that down, surely I will stick to it.

I did try a tai chi video recently and oddly enough my 2 year old thought it was great fun. He particularly liked the part where you "release your chi" by rubbing your hands together, then patting your head, rubbing your face in downwards strokes, then pat all the way down each arms. There has certainly been a lot of loose chi at our place recently!

The other interesting thing for this week is the research that I tracked down that draws the link between hormonal changes after pregnancy and arthritis (link). I have always expected this must be the case because I have heard of quite a few women now who bizarrely have had their arthritis turn up in their late twenties after childbirth. It always seemed an odd cohort to me.

I really hope that this research is taken to its logical conclusion so that relevant treatment options could be considered. With my very limited medical knowledge, it seems to me that anything that could even out your hormones could help but I have no idea what can do that! Anyway, I am planning to do as much research as I can in this space if it means I can give some ideas to my GP and rheumatologist and I will get posting on tai chi once I've given it a red hot go.