My mother is 76. She has pain in her leg which was diagnosed as inflammation possibly arthritis. She is in constant severe pain and no pain killer seems to have helped so far. She cannot do much and is in pain even when sitting, lying down, etc, This started in her late fifties but taking regular exercises class helped. However in the past 2-3 two years that pain became so serve that she cannot exercise any longer. The only longer term pain relief that she had was in the form of cortisone injections, which gave her some relief for about 4-5 months at the time. However after taking two and reading about their possible side effects, she is very reluctant to repeat a third doze. She also tried physiotherapy, radio waves, massage, acupuncture, reflexology, etc. The medications she continues to take usually include paracetamol and more recently pain killer patches, none of which brings any significant relief.
What kind of pain and inflammation management can be recommended? What kind of other treatments are out there? I should also mention that she was recently diagnosed with high reading of sugar in her blood, which may not helped. In the past 2-3 years she has also put on weight, probably due to her lack of exercise and having to cope with the stress of the pain.