Arthritis treatment and blood thinners

Hi . First, let me say that it is great that your grandmother has you advocating on her behalf. Second, has your grandmother been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or does she have osteoarthritis? I ask because rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory autoimmune disease and paracetamol (acetaminophen), while helpful for pain, is not an anti-inflammatory. Many pain relievers are what are known as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and these can be problematic with blood-thinners. This article from Harvard Health goes into further detail: https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/bad-mix-blood-thinners-and-nsaids. There are a number of non-NSAID treatments for RA, but it would depend on your grandmother's diagnosis. Your grandmother's doctor should be able to provide additional information on what treatments are options. Wishing you and your grandmother the best. Richard (RheumatoidArthritis.net Team)

Thank you so much for helping your grandma search for answers, but it also brings up questions at the same time. If you have not talked with her doctors yet, that would be the best place to start, the doctor that wrote her the "blood thinner" prescription in the first place. In the mean time, maybe try a heating pad or ice backs to see if either of those might give her some relief. The questions would be is it arthritis or something else? Blood thinners are usually given to people that have circulatory problems like blood clots, strokes or heart problems. The pain in her legs could have something to do with that and not be arthritis at all or combination of both. If her legs are swelling or retaining water then of course get her feet up and contact her doctors right away. Her leg pain could be from lack of use to combined with arthritis, so hard to say of course, but Blood Thinners puts this back to the doctor whom prescribed them for her. Wish you so much luck and hugs to you and grandma both