Re: hi there! I'm new in this so I might have the wrong approach. However the main reason I'm sending you this message is that I'm suffering form a lot of pain - (I'm 54 yrs old female) and really would like some advice as how to go about managing my problems. I have started getting pain in bo...

Hi there! Thanks for your response! Well I'll start where things began... first I had a back operation L4 -L5 were fused 30 years after the first back op where S1 andL5 were fused because of a abnormality in my spine. After that I found increasing pain in my my hips. Not really in but over the hip area. Its hard to lie on any side - painful and it gives rise to spasms which travel down from the hips to the knee. Then my right knee started swelling. A trip to the doctor resulted in him 'cleaning up the joint'. However, upon waking up he had removed most of the cartilage disc in the joint... this has given me untold pain and discomfort. I went to see a homeopath and he has given me some injections to help counteract the inflammation in the knee and this has helped a lot. There is a lot of cracking noise when I get up in the morning. Then my shoulders - again - it would feel like the muscles around it are more painful than the joint itself. I have started swimming as this is the only exericise that would cause the least stress on my joints, but find that with movement I have a lot of pain. If I stop swimming for a few days my shoulders settle down and are less painful. I recently also had to have the rest of my thyroid removed because there was a tumor - the previous time they also had to remove a section (right section) because there was also a tumor that was malignant. My hands are starting to show signs of thickening in the joints. I was a pianist, but because of a hand problem something caused my finger (R.H.) to lift up slowly, and a previous operation caused more damage to the effect that I cannot play the viruoso pieces I used to. This has caused tremendous stress and disappointment in my life and I am still trying to pick up the pieces of a broken dream in my life. I personally think that a lot of this stress and loss have caused my illness. At present both my thumbs at the base (closest to the wrist) are painful. A struggle to turn pages and grip things firmly because of the pain. My middle finger joint at the nail end is enlargedand the knuckles of most of my fingers seem also to have hard nodes? (best description) at the joint which are sometimes painful. There is definitely degeneration of the vertebrae of my spine as well. In the cevical and lumbal areas. I realize that I'm sitting with two kinds of pain: one more muscular and the other in my joints. I am interested in knowing how best to manage my symptoms and get relief and a cure for my problems. I am so sick of doctors that simply give injections for pain (cortizone) etc. but do not really address the cause of the problem. I hope this gives you a better idea of my symptoms.
Best regards
Talitha