Customer story. Paula, 65, in her own words.
I was going up the stairs on my hands and knees.
Not every day. But often enough that I'd stopped being surprised by it. For a year before that I'd told myself it was just stiffness, you get to sixty-five and things creak, and then I noticed I'd started going up sideways, one foot at a time, and I couldn't remember deciding to do that.
After the stairs it was the chair. You work out how you're getting up before you've even sat down. Then the car, and that pause before you put your weight on it, hoping nobody's watching. Then the garden, which got away from me completely. Then sleep.
Nobody warns you how small your life gets while you're busy managing it.
What the GP could do, and what she couldn't
I went eventually. Everyone did their best. Eight minutes, wear and tear, very common, paracetamol and keep it moving. The physio letter took ten weeks. Six sessions and a sheet of exercises for the landing carpet, and by session four I'd stopped and neither of us mentioned it.
The injection worked. Properly worked. For about ten weeks. Then one morning it was back, and they can only do that a few times a year, and had I thought about a replacement. Referred, not booked. Nobody says how long the list is. I looked it up and wished I hadn't.
None of it is anyone's fault. The GP has eight minutes, the physio has six sessions, the surgeon has a list. It's just that nobody's job is to get you up the stairs this month.
What I tried while I waited
- ✕The wheat bag. Helped for ten minutes. Then I was back at the microwave for the fourth time that night.
- ✕The creams. Warm on the skin, nothing in the joint, and it came off on my trousers.
- ✕The physio. Lovely woman. Six sessions, then a ten-week wait to be seen again.
- ✕The paracetamol. Takes the edge off. I didn't want to be on it every day for the rest of my life.
None of it failed because my knee was too far gone. It failed because every single one of them gives you warmth that fades.
I found this in a Facebook group for osteoarthritis. I was sceptical, I'd already tried the lot. Then I saw the ninety-day trial. If it doesn't work, send it back. So I thought, go on then. What is there to lose.



