Pain

I saw my rheumatologist yesterday-regular visit. I've been having more flares recently, mostly in my feet, with sore, tender, growing nodules at my metacarpophalangeal joints of my forefingers on both hands. In the last 6 months, I've also noticed an increase in my OA symptoms...left knee, right hip, both shoulders, cervical and lumbar spine, etc. I should own stock in BenGay and Capsaicin creams! It is a good thing that I like the smell of menthol!
I was diagnosed with OA at the same time as RA, but for the most part, I only have OA problems if I over exert, or if the weather stays nasty. Most of my pain is from RA, but when you throw in OA pain to boot, it is tough to function and interact normally. Today, my doc gave me a referral to a foot surgeon and lidocaine patches for localized pain. I take anti-inflammatories and a pain pill as well as mybiologic Enbrel, but it doesn't eliminate all the pain. I cut a patch down to size and placed it on my bunionette (a bunionette is on the outside edge of the foot by the pinkie toe-it has nothing to do with size-just bunionettes deform the pinkie toe and bunions deform the great toe.) I have both and the bunion looks worse than the bunionette, but the bunionette causes me the most pain. It is not RA type pain, more like tendonitis, you know, a burning, tennis elbow/carpal tunnel type of pain. So I put a patch on my foot at about 4:30 in the afternoon. I removed it at midnight before taking a shower. You can leave them on for 12 hours-12 on 12 off. For the almost 8 hours I wore the patch, I did not have even one pain in my foot. However, the pain re-emerged within 10 minutes of taking off the patch. I am hopeful that it continues to work to take the edge off as that will enable me to exercise more. Sometimes I skip the bike ride and the fence/mailbox walk simply because I can't deal with more pain. Today was such a day. With relief from the patch, I took a nap instead. If I can exercise more, especially more regularly,(everyday instead of 2 or 3 days a week) I can drop even more weight and meet my goal of losing 50 pounds, which will of course also take a load off my skeletal system and joints. According to the doc, I've lost 11 pounds in 3 months just by drinking more water, exercising a little, drinking far fewer cokes, and substituting unsaturated fats from plants for the saturated animal fats when I can. I haven't gone overboard or anything, I'm still a major carnivore, but I'm trying to make healthier choices and eat more veggies and such.
I thought I would mention these patches in case others might benefit. I was told that I could use them on any part of my body(back, shoulder, knee, arm, ribs, etc.) I wish I had had something like this back when I suffered from CTS daily. Of course it does nothing to stop the cause of the pain-other meds do that, but it surely will increase functionality, and give me a bigger buffer on pain and my mood. When you deal with chronic pain, you become less tolerant of things and you loose your emotional buffer. Anyway, ask your doctor about these things. I can't see a negative to using them, even on a regular basis.