Arthritis Medicine

I never thought I'd be touting medication on this blog -- do you suppose I can get money from the drug company? I did our usual 4-mile walk on the boardwalk today and my hip hardly bothered me at all. I haven't been able to walk that far for several weeks. I attribute the pain reduction to the fact that I started a new medication yesterday. The doctor gave me some samples of Naprelan, which is just naproxen sodium, the same compound as in over-the-counter Aleve. Except in Naprelan, it is in a controlled-release form. I actually am taking less naproxen than I was at 2 Aleve a day, which has to be better for my stomach. But apparently the continuous release works much better at getting the inflamation down and keeping it down.

There is one caveat. When I was researching arthritis medication, I read somewhere that the following effect can come into play. Arthritis flare-ups tend to be cyclical. By the time the pain gets bad enough that the patient looks for some new type of medication, it is probably about time for the pain to subside on its own. So improvements that are attributed to the medication may actually have nothing to do with it. The timing in my case seems much too coincidental. But maybe I'll just take Aleve for the next couple of days and see what happens.