I put ‘chronic’ in apostrophes as that’s my definition, am sure there are others who would scoff at only suffering for 7 or 8 months.

Anyway, have been through various physios, massage, osteopath, podiatrist and even badgered doctor into giving my stronger painkillers (diclofenac seemed to help but I only had 3 day’s worth left and they don’t prescribe it any more. Naproxen did nothing 😭).

I felt I was on the right track with the Osteopath, not with the clicking and clunking she did but with her comments about posture, so I’ve adapted my usual morning core routine to contain less hip thrusty type stuff and more abdominal work to reduce my sway-back posture. Unfortunately I get the impression that improving or changing posture can take a long time, and in the meantime I’m in constant sort of miserable low grade pain occasionally punctuated by more acute pain, brought on by things as inoccuous as trying to run after our 4 year old or kicking a ball (riding a bike actually seems reasonably OK, hence this is post is in chat forum!).

GP seems to think that steroid injections are quite uncommon on NHS, am guessing £500 or so private? Back on high does ibuprofen in the meantime, just to see if it does anything 🙄

Have you tried acupuncture? My chiropractor did that when I had some bad SIJ issues. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, but it really did help release the spasming muscles around there.

I have steroid injections in my wrists (OA) once or twice a year under an NHS consultant works great once it’s settled, but the first week after the injections they’re really painful. Also had them in my knee before I finally got a knee replacement, that worked great and no pain after them. I guess it depends on the joint being injected?

Osteopath sorted mine over a couple of sessions.
Yours might be different, but mine was caused by pulling a high load (sailing) whilst sitting awkwardly causing a joint misalignment.
(I could barely walk at one point)

Have you had AS ruled out? Mine started in the SI joints.

Have you had AS ruled out? Mine started in the SI joints.

That was my first thought – I’m waiting on a scan to confirm a suspicion of AS. My issues started around the si joints too.

One thing that did help was a lot of yoga. If you find Adrienne’s “yoga for the hips and lower back” on YouTube – I basically did that routine every day, and after a couple of months started to ease up – at least so that I could sleep through the night. After about 4 months I didn’t even need painkillers to do so. I’m still doing 20-30 mins of stretches and yoga a day. And I see an osteopath every week, which is breaking the bank a bit, but worth it.

What’s AS?

Sorry – ankylosing spondylitis

Of course… That’s what I came here to say and had forgotten the name. My missus had that and the OP sounds like a similar journey in finding out. She’s on weekly self-injections of an anti TNF immuno suppressant.

Have just skim read a few articles about AS, it certainly rings a few alarm bells (heel pain, randomly) but I would be very low on the spectrum and no family history.

Lord knows how much badgering my GP would require to get me tested though, plus most of my issues can (tenuously) be explained by something else in my physical history, so I might resist dwelling on a possible AS diagnosis for now…

My missus had that and the OP sounds like a similar journey in finding out. She’s on weekly self-injections of an anti TNF immuno suppressant.

I’ve just been reading about these. Has it helped?

Mrs TiRed had the steroid injections over 10 years ago. Seemed to help. This before anti TNFs were really a thing. Steroids were standard of care.

I inject stuff called Humira fortnightly. It allowed me to get a ‘normal’ life back. It was expensive at the time so plenty of hoops to jump (hobble) through but got there in end. Off patent now so bio similars available.

There’s a marker that a blood test can identify that aids confidence in the diagnosis.