I've got arthritis just about all over. My spine and shoulder for sure, and even though they haven't told me yet, you can't convince me I don't have it in my knee. I've also recently learned I have bone spurs on my elbows. That generally doesn't bother me, unless I rest my chin in my hands with my elbows on a table, or something.

With the lower body and spine problems, I sometimes have trouble getting up from a chair, or out of bed. I have just noticed today that if I do five to ten "bicycle" or "march in place" motions with my legs first, it's a lot easier to stand afterwards. If I'm in bed, a few leg lifts will do it. I'm very happy to discover this, because now I don't have to yell "Stuck!" and wait for a family member to come and rescue me. It helps me get a lot more done, and it eases the pain too.

Now I want to know HOW it works. Blood flow? Loosening the muscles? Lubricating the joints? A combination of any of the above? It would be interesting to learn more.

[yellowted]

your muscles probably lock in place when sitting, moving them around before standing probably helps to losen them up. with arthritic joints you need to keep them moving to prevent seizing up, so when sitting, every few minutes move your legs to a different position..out straight, bent up etc but best not crossed! this should help.

when you bend your knees in sitting you are not just bending your knee joint, but all the veins,arteries ligaments and the like are being stretched too, think of a bendy straw, the outer edge of the bend is stretched, the inner egde is all scrunched up, this probably has a slight narrowing effect on the veins and things which will result in less blood flow, so a good stretch like you do will help get the blood flowing again. also your heart pumps faster after a good stretch so this too helps pump blood through your legs faster too.

not a medical professional, just my thoughts!

[Tamster]

yellowted,
u hit it on the button. I have arthritis in my back , knees, neck and fingers. ohhh my some mornings! but the best position for me is laying on my back with heat where it hurts the worst. Sitting up can be bad but standing and walking is the worst!!! The bones hurt and the muscles burn. Nothing really helps does it. I was on strong meds that did not touch it, I am going to talk to my doctor about something different now and see if I can get some relief. I hope and pray you all do as well.

[avlady]

I have rhumatoid arthritis, there is a shot they can give you, for myself i've declined the shots because i wouldn't be able to get to the doc as much as needed, so the doc put me on loritbabs. They work if i can wake up 1/2 hour before i'm fully awake, otherwise it's impossible to get up in the moning. Luckily the pain pills, the loritabs, last throughoutthe day, i'm on 4 a day.

[littlebitlost]

I have arthritis in my hip, quite badly, not badly enough for surgery yet, hell, how bad must it GET?!

I am 18 months on from a huge car accident and nearly died. Torn aorta, 13 broken bones, collapsed lung and random ****. Main breaks were hip, knee, both wrist bones and ribs.

I have trouble sitting/lying down for any great time, and have to 'break myself in' again, but gentle walking with a crutch.....

I have pain meds, but have a history of addiction to them, so am watched carefully. I also suffer GAD, depression, and poss borderline personality disorder.

life is pain.

[yellowted]

i find using a TENS/EMS/MASSAGE unit on the strongest TENS setting helps if used in conjunction with pain meds (30/100 codeine+paracetamol) it doesn't take the pain totally away, but dumbs it down to an ache for a while after the unit stops

[optimize990h]

I have to agree with yellowted regarding why your exercises would improve your mobility. The muscles would have responded to pain and tightened up causing the spine and the shoulder(Lovebird)to be misaligned reinforcing the muscles maladaptive attempts to respond to pain. All that yellowted mentions helps muscle relax and "unknot".

So, Lovebird, when you do your exercises it helps loosens the tightness of the muscle as well as the misalignments(that make the pain worse.) You problem solved to overcome the immobility you experienced intuitively, perhaps?