Help! Hip horror!

As a former physio try the Chartered Society's website to find a properly qualified physio near you. It may be arthritis and they can offer treatment and advice, possibly even gadgets to help.

Get yourself an appointment at the GP... if you phone tomorrow at least you will get a date... you could say you are urgent... incapacitated ... and get a quicker one... but do phone.

About your hip... i can only tell you about my positive experience : one hip replacement 10 years ago then my other hip giving me soooo much pain i couldnt sleep bend ... had no strength etc.. went to GP expecting to be put on waiting list for new hip but instead given a pretty prompt appointment with a diagnostic physo who came up with "trochanteric bursitis".

I was sceptical... thought i was being put off a hip replacement... but duly attended physio for exercise regime.... and truely IT HAS WORKED ...
"core strengthening" exercises and i did them EVERY day for 6 months which was tedious ... took 10 minutes a day...could do most of them on my bed...
but it has worked and i am pain free... took about a month before i felt any improvement but its just got better and better...
But get yourself to the GP ... and use the NHS... i know its slower than we would like but they are actually not after your money and it works ...

nannypiano Every time you have an appointment at our surgery it is followed up by a text asking if you would recommend the surgery to a friend - with marks out of 5. This week I dashed from work for an appointment for my annual diabetic review which I thought was with the practice nurse. I got there and checked in with the electronic screen which told me to take a seat in the main waiting room where I would be called by Dr ... I sat down and decided to check my phone for the text that reminded me of the appointment to see if it mentioned a Dr rather than a nurse. I found a text telling me that my appointment had been cancelled! Unfortunately the Dr was off sick but the electronic screen had not been informed! If I hadn't checked my phone I wonder how long I'd have waited! I still got the text asking for my marks out of five. You can guess what my response was! Replacement appointment in two weeks time - sigh!

Thanks for that information Camelotclub. I am on blood thinning tablets and did not know that. I have some Omega 3 tablets but have not taken them for a while. Probably a good job.

I have had the same problem and had to use son to put socks on many years ago. Osteopath was my saviour. Do please try one. Well worth the money in my book. Good luck with getting well.

I have a really good sock putting on gadget that I bought from Amazon. It wasn’t the cheapest one, but it is probably one of the best ones. You put the sock over it while it on your knee, drop it to the floor, stick your foot into it and hey presto, the sock is on your foot. I love it, it was worth every penny!

Change socks at bedtime and leave those on til next evening, you might be looser by then.

Do you have a dog? If so one of the best things I have found is you stick your foot in the handle end of the lead, and lift your foot up onto the other leg to pop your socks on - suppose it depends on how much pain you are in to be able to manage that?

I cannot get down there either due to a duff back and several abdominal hernias, and haven't worn socks for 9 months now as I also have Periphersl Neuropathy due to the Sjogrens as well and socks now feel 'funny' too on my feet

I do the same thing in the hip joint in the lower back, use my knuckle

You can sometimes bypass your GP and self refer to NHS physios. Look into how it works in your area before paying for private physio

Purplepoppies that has made me lol, as young people say. Love the invention and go-to attitude! Do have pegs and string, too.

I used pegs and string! I couldn't get on with sock putter onner!! Strong wooden pegs and good strong string or wool wrapped around the pegs. Peg the socks. Pull them up carefully. Bob's your uncle...

Maybe a stupid thing dea but buy some very large Woolley men’s socks - look like sh!t but keep the toes warm, and slippers maybe

I am tempted to suggest my surgery leaves a writing pad somewhere near the exit so we can anonymously leave a report of our experience with the treatment we have just received. Doctor's attitude, manner, general interest in helping, etc. I'm sure it would make very interesting reading and show that the over 60's are much more disillusioned with the way they were treated. Should we vote?

I’m so moved and grateful by all your lovely input and ideas here. Think the reason the sock crisis had me in tears was that I felt so alone with it! Thank you so much for letting me know that I’m not. Also symbolic of where I am. Things going wrong and facing it alone.
I’m managing with painkillers, which I don’t let taking, but they definitely help. Have just bought some generic rub in volteral-like cream and Deep Heat. Remember my Dad doing that for an aching elbow. And yes, second step of stair is helping.
Have yet to phone GP, as my local surgery is a mess. Can’t face it. Last time we interacted, was diagnosed with menopause. It turned out to be appendicitis! But am on case of finding a good local physio. Think they will be more use. Take vit D and zinc. Maybe fish oils might help. Stretching is low key. Can still walk no probs, if a bit achey. Hoping it’s just ligaments tight etc. Onwards and sockwards!
Thanks again and love to you for your brilliant support. ?

this is something that would help you. available from Amazon or from any place that sells disability aids

Kerenhappuch I have to agree. I have a friend who is kindly and a little too persistently trying to make me go to the GP. I just know that, to get the good Doctor, there will be over two weeks delay or no appointments at all and then if I do go to him he won't really do anything anyway. I think when we are old it doesn't matter to them. I mean, I am sure I would have had investigations for a symptom I have if I were in my 40s or if I had a husband sitting beside me saying how I am up three hours at night not able to move for the pain. Indeed a friend my age whose husband went to the doctor with her with a less painful version of the same was given a lot of investigations and an operation to remove the affliction. But my GP just looks at me and says "well you got here now all right...". Other Doctors at the same practice are in a terrible hurry. One there would not let me speak! I think it's really more upsetting going there than suffering alone at home.

Shizam A million sympathies, re. need for warmth for feet, need to reach feet, and impossibility of getting a Doctor. I just don't go to them now either and sometimes I'm in excruciating pain.
Last Winter, living alone, I hatched up a warm boot idea I could step into. I filled the boot with an extra warm fluffy insole. At one point I lined the boots with the stuff you but behind radiators, with the aluminium foil on. I used same to stand on at the sink and to put under my feet where I sit. As I said I live alone so my eccentricities are all my own. Well, and the dogs'.
Now, this hip; I may be wrong so please get some good help like a Chiropractor if you can, but, I wonder if it's like when I started trying to do the right thing for my very dodgy back. I followed the "Back Bible" book by a Physiotherapist and even had her hand-bag sized copy. I felt I had to be responsible and do my bit. A week after I started, very slowly as advised, I was taken into hospital with the worst sciatic nerve pain ever had. Screaming if I as much as blinked.
My message is, could your very sensible and laudable exercises be causing the pain?
Sending you lots of love and do keep your hips warm as well as your feet. I also wrap my feet in anything available, scarves, blankets, bags with warm things in like those microwave heated seed-filled things.... ??

How about trying Actipatch you can buy a free trail for 4.99 for a week.I wear one as have a dodgy hip and it works wonders,if you have facebook you can read about it or look on Amazon.

Ugg type slippers or boots. Slip them on. They are lined so lovely and warm and comfortable without socks. Sorry if someone has already suggested this, not read full thread.

your surgery may be able to recommend a nerve block - a friend of mine has had several ..... they last for some time. she had to be referred to hospital for this but i know it helped her tremendously.
if you have problems with cutting your toenails perhaps a visit to a chiropidist - or maybe finding one that comes to you - will help.
i have one comes to me every 6/7 weeks and, in the i don't know how many years, she's been able to tame all my hard skin and i feel like i'm walking on air at the end. thankfully she's not expensive - only £22 a visit - and it's well worth it.
i found a pain relieving spray which helped me with arthritis in my knee - deepfreeze. you can get it from supermarkets. a blue metal spray can.
hope you can get to see your gp very soon. arthritis pain is awful.

I do that Gabriella, after a shower , but instead of the rim of the bath I place my foot on the rim of the toilet seat ?

I find tbe best way of cutting my toenails is right after a shower or bath, getting dry then standing on one leg (on the floor not in the bath) put the other foot on the lip of the bath, knee bent, and I can clip away and sluice the clippings down the drain.

Shizam
Those thingys with the pincer ends would do the trick. The ones you can pick things up with. Grab each side of the sock with a grabber then pull them on and...Hey Presto!

mixing up posts - must be going mad