Feeling old in the mornings.

Only an hour, Falconbird? I give myself a couple of hours now, when I can - I gradually unbend and unstiffen after a couple of cups of tea and just pottering round till I feel halfway human again. My 66 year old ankles are the last to loosen up - till then I do a good imitation of a penguin!

Yep! It takes me from staggering downstairs at 7am til about 10am, when I can just about get another cuppa without moaning!

I don't like it!

Yes I agree. I find my joints (particularly, wrists, elbows and ankles) are sore and stiff first thing. I put it down to the fact that I now do a lot more lifting and carrying than I used to. Also, hip and knee (very painful) which has been troublesome for a year or so.

I hadn't reckoned on this happening - what a b----r. I walk about in a semi stooped position for at least an hour. I remind myself of my old mum which doesn't help. It's my shoulders, arms, elbows, knees which hurt.

Take your point about lifting and carrying nannie - I used to leave most of that to my Dh.

I don't risk a lot of things these days. If my son can't help there's a scheme run by age concern - called Care and Repair. They will change high up light bulbs, take curtains down - stuff like that. Haven't used them yet - but keep them in mind. I think they also do other things such as minor repairs.

Anyone take supplements which help?

Me too, especially knees. Mispent youth jumping the burn I suspect.
You have to admire the woman ( can't remember her name ) who started runnung marathons at 70. Amazing!

I saw my GP for this about 3 years ago because every morning I was actually in considerable pain, unable to straighten my back, and my neck and shoulders were stiff - you know when you sleep awkwardly and wake up with a stiff neck? That sort of feeling, only it didn't really ease at all.
My doc thought I might have PMR (polymyalgia rheumatica) and arranged some blood tests. He was right, and prescribed steroids - 15mg a day - and within 36 hours I was pain free. I could get out of bed each morning and stand up straight, it was like a miracle!
He told me that the condition often disappears after about two years, with treatment, and no-one knows why this is.
The idea was to gradually reduce the dose, 1mg at a time. I'm afraid I have been nervous of this, which is why I've gone on taking the stuff for longer. However, I'm now down to 1mg a day and hope to give up altogether in about 2 weeks. I am a little stiff now in the mornings, but nothing like I was before.
So if you're very stiff and bent in the mornings, with neck, shoulder and maybe hip pain, and this wears off within a couple of hours, it might be worth seeing your GP - it could be PMR.

I was going to suggest this. It could also be down to some form of early arthritis.

Back in the winter I started a thread about aches/pains/arthritis etc., and somebody recommended magnesium tablets for improving muscle function.

I take two tablets a day - they also contain zinc and I've been taking glucosamine sulphate for ages.

I have noticed a big difference in my mobility. Even on days when the pressure changes - which usually causes my joints to stiffen - I can get going a lot faster in the mornings.

RESULT - Thanks, whoever you are.

I do some gentle stretching and flexing before I get out of bed. Bending knees and gentle back lifts - just raising the bum a few inches, rotating ankles, swinging legs out and back to loosen hips.
If I wake to go to the loo and get up immediately, I'm very aware of the difference.

I'm stiff for the first couple of hours especially my back and I need to take my meds and get them coursing around before I can do anything really strenuous. I don't like to play golf before 10 and was very surprised to find everyone else shoots out at the crack of dawn even the 80+ ladies. I really cant see the point when there is all day to play especially in cold weather I like the course to get warmed up for me first.

I don't have much of a problem first thing in the morning, but if we go out for a long walk, or a day when I am mostly on my feet, and then I either have to drive, sit in the car, to get home, I am absolutely crippled and can hardly move anything for a couple of hours afterwards. On the days when we do a walk to and from the house, and haven't had to sit, I'm fine. It's as if that sitting sets everything solid!

AshTree, I recognised your story! It's almost four years since my first PMR diagnosis and there have been ups and downs along the way. I'm currently back up to 10mg of prednisolone but I think the rise in inflammatory markers over the winter was caused by repeated sinus and chest infections. You're doing really well and it sounds as if you might have kicked the beast! this web site has helped me a lot and I know I recommended it to another member of this forum who has also found it helpful. Anyone who has a recent diagnosis of PMR would find Polymyalgia Rheumatica and Giant Cell Arteritis: a survival guide by Dr Kate Gilbert informative and reassuring.

I am stiff in the mornings but I know its down to Osteo-Arthritis in my joints, it does wear off after half an hour or so but my day depends on which joint wants to 'complain' the loudest today. Can be any one of my larger joints or the small ones in ankles and hands.. My anti-inflammatories make it bearable but doing some stretches and flexes first thing helps also. I find swimming a couple of times a week helps too.

I hesitate to say "in today's DT" but I am going to,the resident Dr passed on advice which he has given before. Every morning eat exactly 15 golden raisins which have been soaked in gin. It is said the aches and pains will feel much easier. It may have been Monday's edition.

What is today's DT - love the advice though - what happens if you only eat 14 raisins or 16? Any particular kind of gin?

And then can you drink the gin they've been soaking in?

Sounds wonderful! Can you skip the raisins and just do the gin (not keen on raisins!)

I usually pick the raisins out of my breakfast cereal and throw them out for the birds. Throwing out gin soaked raisins might have quite entertaining results!

With me its more about my mind than my body. Its difficult to explain but of late I really feel quite 'away with the fairies' when I fist wake up even after a good night's sleep. I sit quietly in the sunniest part of the house for a while and let the daylight do its work. Once I've had coffee and breakfast I can then feel a bit more like taking on the day.

annsixty

If I've slept well I wake up feeling great, but after a bad night all aches and pains from tension. I've got osteo-arthritis too.
Reminds me of something Warren Mitchell said - "If I wake up in the morning with no pain, I think I must be dead"

For the sceptics amongst you just google Gin soaked Raisins and you will see I haven't yet lost it.Sorry merlot and Greyduster the gin has to evaporate.

annodomini. It's more a case of being determined to get off some of my meds than actually 'kicking the beast'. I'm not altogether sure I have kicked it to be truthful - time will tell . I have had a return of arthritic pain since cutting the dose right down, and I'm once again struggling to kneel, to climb on a chair, that sort of thing. And as for getting in and out of the bath, forget it! Showers only, these days .
The thing is, I saw a locum doctor several months ago, about another issue, but the PMR came up in the discussion. He was of the view that it is 'massively overdiagnosed' (his words). When I said, 'but the steroids have stopped all the pain I was experiencing!' he told me that yes, they would, because they're a powerful anti-inflammatory. But, he said, I should remember that a lot of my aches and pains were almost certainly down to arthritis, not PMR, so of course those would return as I cut down on the prednisolone. So I made up my mind there and then to wean myself off it, as I'm also on omeprazole daily for a haitus hernia and regular paracetamol for foot pain, and I don't want to rattle

annsixty I already had googled the gin soaked raisins! Very interesting, and something I definitely want to try. However! The websites I've looked at say you must use 'golden raisins'. Now, the big supermarkets here don't seem to sell these, though Holland and Barrett do at about twice the price of ordinary raisins.
Then I looked into it further and found that in the US they call sultanas golden raisins. I've tried to find out the difference between 'golden raisins' and 'sultanas' but have found widely varying information, so don't know what to believe any more. But I am beginning to wonder whether they are truly just sultanas - if so, Holland and Barrett may just be ripping people off!