hi joan, i just came across this forum and am glad its here. i need to have a knee replaced due to injury/arthritis and have had 2 cortisone shots and the series of 3 hyalgons. the first cortisone shot gave me almost immediate relief that lasted 8 months; the second was half as successful. the hyalgon did nothing......i am hoping the wls will help me stave off the knee replacement surgery. gail

i was wondering if any one has had arth and was approved for wls. i also have GERD and depression. my BMI is 37

Lisa I am pe-op and have terrible arthritis, hoping for some relief after losing weight, but I had pain way back in my thin years but I'm optomistic. Right now I take Vicodin and 2 ADVILS twice a day. It doesn't take away all the pain but I'm able to at least function. I'm wondering what I will be able to take after surgery, I can hardly wait to be a loser!! Brenda

Weight loss is probably one of the best helps for arthritis pain. Also water aerobics specifically for those with arthritis is wonderful. It helps to keep the joints flexible w/o putting strain on them. I too suffer with arthritis and can't wait for my surgery on March 18. 3 years ago I lost 70 pounds and my arthritis pain was just about non existent. Of course I gained it all back and so the pain came with it.

Hi, I have been told I have RA/OA/Fibro. I had heart surgery in 2002, and since then have had severe flares of pain in the rib cage area. The docs have told me it's chest wall pain and nothing can be done. The rhuemy doc I saw twice, at a different place and is no longer available to me, prescribed predisone, Plaquenial (sp) and Avara. I never started the Avara, there would not have been any monitering, and the Plaquenial I took for 6 months, but was told to stop if I wanted my WLS surgery. I still take the predisone, it seems to be the only thing that helps. My sed rate is really high, my CRP is high, positive RF factor, these results are from 2002, no one has ran any of this blood work since then, the docs I see here tell me it's not necessary. I've tried to wean myself off the predisone, I take 5 mg a day, but the pain gets really intense. The WLS surgeon doesn't address the issue, he has done his work. I'm trying to find a PCP doc, I realize predisone is not a good thing, but for me it's not really a choice right now, till I can find a different way to address the pain, it never goes away, just better some days that others. So would I try a new arthritis doctor, the cardiologist that did the heart surgery told me it had nothing to do with him, the arthritis doc I saw there told me it had nothing to do with her, the last PCP I saw told me it was completely normal everybody that has chest surgery always has pain for the rest of their life, so everybody tells me it's not THEIR area, and I can't get help. Any ideas?? Sue O