Dealing with painful joints

I decided to share a little of what's been going on with me in the hope that it might help others dealing with similar issues.

In 2017 I had a diagnosis of breast cancer which was treated successfully with surgery, chemotherapy & radiotherapy. All of this took its toll on my body & as well recovering from the aggressive treatment, I found I was now post menopausal & had a whole new set of symptoms to cope with.

There has been a lot in the media over the last few years and much of resonates with me. I was advised not to have Hormone Replacement Therapy due to the history of cancer so I tried to manage my menopause symptoms with good nutrition, exercise & taking time for me.

It was not easy. Mood swings, hot flushes, poor sleep, achy muscles & joints all became just the norm for me. Eventually I was given the ok to have a minimum dose of HRT which helped a lot although I would still usually wake at least once a night.

At the beginning of 2020 I retired from the demanding job as a Response Sergeant with Police Scotland, retrained & began teaching Pilates. I loved it & with the extra time I had, I could be found walking & running along beautiful trails, exploring our gorgeous country.

However, I found that I started to have a tightness in my left hip. I was still able to walk & run but I noticed my hip mobility was less on the left than the right. I spent time working on my mobility & was able to keep as active as ever until the end of 2023 when I found that my hip started to hurt after running, then during & after, then even when walking.

This started me down the road of physiotherapy & x-rays, receiving a diagnosis of osteoarthritis.

I swapped running for the gym in an effort to keep my muscle strength & support the joint as much as I could whilst continuing with Pilates & Yoga, modifying as necessary.

I don't know what triggered the arthritis & science has still to figure that one out. I have now have significant deterioration in my hip range of motion & have more or less constant pain in it.

I think that effort I have put in with Pilates and other movement practices have kept me much more mobile than I would otherwise have been & I would say to anyone with joint or arthritic pain, keep moving.

I am now scheduled for a total hip replacement at the end of this month, so my classes will be paused while I recover from that & I will try to keep up the blog posts to let you know how that all goes.