I'm a very active person, climbing mountains, going to the gym and doing different sports with my friends is my entire life, so I'm not coping with the fact that I'm continually losing the ability to do what I love. The doctors just tell me to 'do less' and 'accept and adapt' my life. But to me that just isn't an option. I've had a couple of steroid injections but the second one has only lasted about a month before the pain is coming back and I already feel like I'm out of options as its 'not bad enough' yet for the consultant to consider surgery.

I'm scared of losing my 20s/30s to constant pain. I want to travel but I don't know whether I'll even be able to walk very far in a few months or years as its just so unpredictable. It just feels like I've constantly got a huge weight pressing me down and I'm struggling with the depression and anxiety of trying to live with this.

I watch my 'normal' friends go about their lives and just get so sad and jealous that they can do whatever they want and I can't.

Has anyone had experience of having surgery this young? Is it worth trying to push for it or is life after a hip replacement going to be worse?

Thanks! x

Natasha - one of our Versus Arthritis Young People's Panel members - is currently running a survey open for young people aged 16-25 living with #arthritis or a related condition for another week.

It focuses on good communications between young people and healthcare professionals as well as support needed to manage the admin of having a long term health condition.

Natasha will be sharing the findings with the VA Panel to help support services and shape our work at Versus Arthritis. She will also be sharing the learning with healthcare professionals we work with across the UK later this year.

It only takes two minutes and we'd really appreciation your thoughts : forms.office.com/r/WXf13SfsDH

If you need help with anything that comes up in the survey or you're looking to get in touch with other young people living with arthritis then please contact the Young People and Families Service : YPFSUKTEAM@versusarthritis.org

You might also find our Versus Arthritis Tracker App useful to download - it helps track your condition over time : Arthritis tracker | Phone app | Versus Arthritis

If you new to the prison, I have some recommendations.

1. Realise that no one is going to care about your body and health as much as you. Although people can empathise, they won't know what it's like and that's ok.

2. Most medicines will clash with booze, so I think Cannabis will push more into the Arthritis Community, as its legal now and we can be open and honest about its effects. This is not available on NHS but worth looking into!

I don't know what the next decade holds for me, hopefully my boys will give me some slack.

I have Arthritis, it does not have me

I have never had a friend my age who can understand what I go through, I’m a young girl and can’t handle work as I am really struggling with my arthritis, I can’t even walk round my block :( I also have bad anxiety so I don’t talk to people much about what I’m thinking or going through, i never like talking about my illness to anyone I always try and hide it, so I’m glad I can be myself in here x

Also, I hadn't dealt with much pain in my hips until a couple of months ago. It feels very sudden onset in the area and it's really severe. Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Hope everyone on here has been going well, take care!

At the moment I feel as if I am being silly, as I find it hard to open jars and after a few hours typing on my computer my wrist and finger are extremely sore and swollen...

Just wanna know if anyone has any advice on what relaxes them or helps with their joints that isn't medication

My wrists and fingers are absolutely killing me, it’s hurting to even type this, not sure if I’m experiencing what you guys call a ‘flare up’ but I have lumps on where my wrist joints are and my fingers feel swollen and tight… From my shoulders down I just feel bruised and wince when I do simple tasks like answer my phone or push open doors, I’m 26 and have a 2 year old and we are currently actively trying for our second child so I don’t want to be put on anything that may affect that… But I just don’t know what to do My last blood test showed that my CRP and ESR levels had doubled, but I haven’t heard anything from my consultant so assume that’s ok? 

I just feel so low at the moment and in pain but am trying to plod along and brush it off… not the smartest approach I know, but I think I’ve just hit a wall ‍♀️ 

Any words of wisdom or experience from yourselves would be great! 

Abbie

The concomitant depression and anxiety are also feeling chronic, along with the pain, and I simply don't know what options I have to lead a life - not a normal life, I never expected this to be the case - but a life that involves people who CAN. I'm surrounded by these people who CAN. Everything seems so easy and light and frivolous. Whereas my life seems marred, prematurely, by this pained brush.

Waking up in the morning I'm greeted with a fine mist of opportunity and possibility that I try so so hard to dwell in, hoping that some may permeate into me. Every morning I feel devastated that today isn't the day that something, anything, slots into place.

I have discussed my personal situation so often and shed so many tears over this left knee that I've even considered infecting my entire leg to have it amputated. THIS IS AN OVER REACTION - I AM AWARE. But given that so few people from University in particular are willing to react at all to my vulnerability I feel it is my duty to OVER REACT!!!! MY ARTHRITIC LEG DESERVES SOME ATTENTION. SOME LOVE FOR A CHANGE.

Inevitably this bodily prison has had an impact on my emotional, interior life. In a world (society probably more apt) the body is so heavily focussed on, by me too, that I feel an utter failure not being able to live my life physically. I was, not too long ago, in really good physical condition. However, what people fail to understand is that the effort I know I must put into the gym etc. in order to compete is so far beyond what a healthy person has to.

AND THEN, as I know every arthritis sufferer the world over has experienced, the lockdowns happened and no support whatsoever was available (speaking as a University student here with no option for income).

Initially I was looking forward to some respite from the constant effort of doing normal things. Now, however, I am completely terrified of doing most things as my leg feels so much weaker than it did. The solution to this is of course exercise, but I simply can't reconcile my interior self with my bodily self. It is very frustrating and as much as I understand that projection helps nothing in a case such as this I can't help but worry, excessively, over how I'm going to manage this for the rest of my life.

I don't think I'm in a place to receive suggestions I think I simply need an acknowledgement that this condition makes answering any question concerning desire to live life far more difficult to answer.

I am terrified

all of the side affects and problems that can arise are so scary as I’ll be on these long term and don’t want to mess my system up even more. Please help

Communication is hard but there is help in the section on your relationships. I find using I messages really good, so saying At times I need to choose whether I want help and what that help is to be.

I do hope that hasn't been too much information, it is wonderful you have each other to care for now and that friendship can last for ever - I hope

Take care

Yvonne x