Christine Stanbury - No Looking Back

Christine Stanbury spent a career as a secretary in a variety of industries and now looks after her mother. For several years Christine has lived with both osteoarthritis and osteopenia.

This is Christine’s story…

I lived abroad for many years in Hong Kong and Germany as my children’s father was in the military. We came back in the early ‘90s and have been settled in the UK ever since. Over the course of my career I worked for The National Trust and, for a long time, in estate agencies. Then my second husband suggested I come and work for him at his legal firm.

These days I care for my mother who lives with me. We are both widows she’s 93, which can be quite a full-time commitment despite the outside assistance we have. I have two sons, both married and four grandchildren, I used to pick up the elder two from nursery when they were little whilst their parents were working.

About 17 years ago I was diagnosed with osteopenia in my lower vertebrae, which is where your bones become weak. In 2015 I was given a three year course of Zolendronic infusion for the osteopenia. And then I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis in both ankles, hands, and recently my clavicle and right shoulder joint. Some of those are as a direct result of a horse riding accident when I was 14. The thing with joint pain is you don’t realise how much you depend on your joints until you suddenly cannot use them the way you need to.

You have to start thinking about what you can do that makes the pain bearable. I love gardening but with my shoulder pain I have to be careful what I do. I couldn’t pick my younger grandchildren up like their cousins because I know my joints weren’t going to support me in the way I needed them to. Little things like walking, going upstairs and standing for long periods is so painful when you have arthritis in your ankle joints. When I’m caring for my mother I have to be careful because if I’m helping her in or out of the car, lifting her wheelchair or walker can cause me a great deal of pain. The question is always “can I lift this without it hurting?” It’s not a question you ever want to be asking yourself.

I had taken amitriptyline and codeine for the pain, it wasn’t doing anything. During one of my yearly specialist appointments I mentioned the painkillers I was prescribed were not helping. He mentioned FlexiSEQ to me. He’d recently attended a conference where FlexiSEQ had been the main topic and he suggested I try it because it was unlike traditional painkillers which weren’t working for me. So I started using it daily and have been using it ever since.

What FlexiSEQ does is take the edge off the pain, allowing me to move in the way I want - and, more importantly - need to. I also have acupuncture once a fortnight which helps with the pain as well. There are still certain movements that cause pain but for the most part I’m able to manage it much better than I ever could prior to FlexiSEQ. Since I started using FlexiSEQ I haven’t looked back. It’s nice to be able to have something you can use regularly that doesn’t have side-effects and that you have faith in.

I’m part of a Patient Participation Group at my local GP surgery and everytime we’re on the topic of joint pain I always tell people about FlexiSEQ. People are so keen to learn more about it. A couple in the group have both used it and been impressed. When you have as many joint issues as I have, you’ll turn to anything that might help; FlexiSEQ has certainly done that for me.