[Zeke]

I have had all of these problems. They all settle down when I quit aggravating them. You might go 2-3 days not using the thumb (or insert favorite joint here) and then aggravate it again. Start over.

Working through a knee problem now. The thing is, it is aggravated when I sleep on my side. I can walk and jog till my hips hurt and the knee is fine. Finding a way to wrap it only at night, and adjusting the bed and pillows (one between the knees), and I'm halfway there in 2 months. I'd be over this but I don't have total control when I'm asleep. Plus, I like to pull my leg up a bit when sleeping but the answer seems to be to keep it extended.

A year or so ago I wore a thumb brace. I don't even know where it is now. I had trouble for 20 years with both shoulders. Bone on bone. I had to work. At first I could get by with cortisone. 3 shots in each. They helped but still working made my right shoulder nearly unbearable. Couldn't sleep on that side.I was taking Norcos and using a Skilsaw. I finally went for a total replacement.

After a lengthily rehab, both shoulders were fine. The other one settled down due to the rehab and not working as a carpenter. Today the one shoulder is still theoretically bone one bone but it gives me no problems. I have a lifetime 20 lb weight limit on the new shoulder so I lift with the other one. Still no problems.

I would never resort to any kind of surgery again unless I'm dying. Even in this age surgery is barbaric. I don't want to tell you what the prostate cancer radiation treatments are like or what you face down the road. Surgeons are barbarians and orthopods have the reputation of being the worst animals in the biz.

Eat right, exercise naturally by working cleaning, gardening, working on the car and doing home improvements. Stay on your feet and do something and take several breaks to snack or hydrate, the latter being more important. Due programmed exercises if you must, but the non variation seems to have a lesser benefit than doing many different things. I hate exercise equipment and I hate phys therapy. Same ol' grind each session. Knowing something about what they are trying to do and doing this on your own plus stretching is much better.

Yeah. Stretching out a new shoulder is tough siht. You gonna hurt a lot at the time. But the pain doesn't last like a bum shoulder or bad joint.

I know there are some great doctors. I know there are some great mechanics too. But they call it the top of the class for a reason. At best, a doctor is somewhere on the Bell curve. The Bell curve is real, folks. Chances are way in favor that your doctor is somewhere in the fat part of the curve hump.

Not good enough when something really serious or technical comes up. I know, I take my wife or stepdaughter to an average of 2 doc appt's/week. That's 8 per month spread out over nearly 8 docs. I don't have a good word for 7 out of the 8 and the 8th is just coming out of his earlier days as a dolt. 20 years being a doc and now head of a staff at the hospital helps.

Sorry for the rant. But if I need a new doc and he hasn't done a fellowship at Mayo or equivalent, I cross that doc off the list. You will never find these docs at a HMO.

When the local docs can't get down into it and get some results, I head to UCLA or UC Irvine. Or Hoag in Orange County. There are some good people around Cedars Sinai, but the hospital itself is a real hole. If you have your name on a wing, say like Streisand or Burns, I think you get a nice room. The rest make Motel 6 look like the Ritz Carlton. And it's as noisy 24 hours a day as a Compton street.

So that's the other thing. Where does your doc work out of? Very important part of the equation.