Treating the Aches

In 2019 I developed an oligoarticular distal arthritis which lingered in some form until this day.  I took anti-inflammatories, splinted errant finger joints and tendons, squeezed the ball for platelet donations with my more functional left hand, and submitted to a variety of unrevealing testing conducted by a very capable personal physician.  It largely ran its course, though cycled, leaving me with no disability but a small residual discomfort in my right fingers.

Current aches are different, more consistent with the approach of threescore and ten years in just another week.  They distribute more axially, have not been migratory, persisted unchanged for months, and have more of a point focus in the part of my back least accessible to applying Ben Gay or similar atomic balm. I have a pleuritic component, my Hb has ebbed just enough for the blood bank to declare me ineligible to maintain my regular donations.  Other than being tired, which I attribute to disordered sleep, I do not feel systemically ill.  Other than a CBC, there has been no medical investigation, though I am due for periodic lab testing next month.  

As a more immediate pursuit, it would be better to have less discomfort, self-assessed at about a 2/5, more annoying by its persistence than its severity.  I took a naproxen, and plan to stay on a bid schedule this week.  I could ask my wife to goop my back with Ben Gay bid.  Not long ago I purchased a tube of Voltaren on sale, finding it useless on my hand though the suggested qid schedule could not be realistically maintained.  The current joint involvement, though mild, is widespread so internal therapy offers a better prospect than topical which may remain useful for the most bothersome areas.  Give it a go.  Stay on schedule.