LIVING WITH OSTEOARTHRITIS VIDEO SERIES:

Overview: Slowing Down

MARCY: Hello, welcome. Oh, what a sweet little puppy! Oh, aren’t you a cutie, aren’t you a cutie, oh! Welcome, welcome, beautiful day.

DR. VAD:  Hi there. Marcy?

MARCY: Yes.

DR. VAD:  Hi, Vijay Vad, how are you?

MARCY: Pleasure to meet you.

DR. VAD:  Pleasure to meet you. So tell me what’s going on. What brings you to us?

MARCY: Well, um I’ve been having quite a bit of pain lately, eh uh in my hip, left hip, and frankly it’saffecting every part of my life, so.

DR. VAD:  So tell me how it’s affecting quality of life as far as recreation, sports, work…

MARCY: Well…

DR. VAD: …walking.

MARCY: All of the above, um, eh in work, I own a boutique.

DR. VAD:  Mm hm.

MARCY: A small shop, um but I’m sole proprietor and I’m there all day, every day. (sound of gate rolling up) We’re open six days a week, so it’s a long day, a long week.

DR. VAD:  Tough job.

MARCY: And there’s stock to carry, um sometimes heavy boxes.

DR. VAD:  Mm hm.

MARCY:: There’s stairs in the shop. I have to clamber up stepladders to put up displays, get stuff down and so forth. I I’m finding, particularly in the last few weeks, eh it’s just getting harder and harder for me to to do my job and and to to…

DR. VAD:  Right.

MARCY: …do it well.

MARCY: Oh, that’s perfect. Let me, let me get this…

MARCY: You know and at the end of the day, I’m so tired and sometimes the pain is so bad, when I get home I, well I I used to take long walks, good, strong, powerful long walks for exercise and enjoyed it.

DR. VAD:  Right.

MARCY: Um, over the last few months and particularly these last few weeks it’s just getting harder and harder for me to take walks…

DR. VAD:  Yeah.

MARCY: …and to enjoy it.

MARCY: Taxicabs where I used to walk.

DR. VAD:  Yeah.

MARCY: Um the stairs eh in the subway stations, I’m taking them slowly, I’m having a hard time with those.

DR. VAD:  Any buckling of the leg going down the stairs ever or…

MARCY: Not so much buckling as sometimes as sharp pain…

DR. VAD:  Pain.

MARCY: …down the leg.

DR. VAD:  Yeah.

MARCY: And I hang onto the railing. After closing the shop, I I would make dinner and now I’m finding I can’t even stand and prep vegetables, I can’t eat healthily, I’m ordering in because frankly I I’m just too tired and too sore to…

DR. VAD:  Yeah.

MARCY: …to cook.

DR. VAD:  And I’m sure that ordering in hasn’t had a positive impact on your weight.

MARCY: I’ve gained so much weight, and it’s been getting progressively worse.

DR. VAD:  Yeah.

MARCY: I was always uh slim and active and vital and I’m frankly feeling old and fat and miserable.

DR. VAD:  Yeah, I hear you.