Have my arms shrunk?

i have an answer to the toenails question. I have a chiropodist come and do mine every seven weeks! she not only sorts out my toenails but also gets rid of any hard skin and, at the end, applies a wonderful cream which makes me feel like i'm walking on air [odd feeling if you're a larger than you should be lady].
as for the flexibility, i've started swimming again after my second knee replacement last august and a car accident just after christmas [cracked breastbone - very painful] and i'm thinking of taking up tai chi as i've read that's very helpful with flexibility. or going to a flexercise class.
can't get down on the floor any more - i'd never get up again owing to the knee replacements so yoga and other exercises are out.

Part and parcel of the aging process or so my kind and sympathetic GP would give in answer to my
'whys'?

Gone girl. It's the area just below the muffin top.

Sorry to ask but do arms really shrink or have you gone up a dress size or two and the sleeves are cut longer in those sizes? Just asking…

I think my arms have shrunk as sleeves seem to come down over my hands now. Middle bit ok and I can just touch my toes.

No, but I bought a linen shirt in M&S last week and, after trying it on at home after unrolling the turned up sleeves, found that they were much longer than any other sleeved clothes I own.
I rang up M&S to ask why, as my arms are a 'normal' length but they just said they'd refer the comment to their buyers.

I have always had trouble with high shelves/too-long sleeves, as I am only 5ft tall (or short!)

However, since I have been diagnosed with the dreaded osteo in my right hip and knee, life is even more of a pain - literally.

I can cut my left-foot toenails, and put on its sock and shoe. No problem. As for the right........well the toenails are a definite no-no, and putting on my sock and shoe, even with the long shoehorn I bought recently, involves a lot of ouching, and even the odd swear-word!

I can still touch my toes. It's the leg-lifting and bending that pains me. I don't know if, or when I will be eligible for a replacement. I just hope that I will be fit enough to cope with the long flight to Australia, for my daughter's wedding, in November.

How long does it usually take from diagnosis to replacement op?

Not only that but all clothes have sleeves that come over my hands!!

I have trouble putting on my bra, I have always clipped it up round my back, I know some of you do from the waist but I always got in a muddle and prefer the other way but my arms are weaker now.

Pilates is good for keeping supple - as recommended by my physio. Swimming/walking in the pool is also really helpful. I do both forms of exercise and I dread to think what I'd be like, without them....(It's fastening my bra which I find to be particularly challenging!)

I don’t think my arms have got shorter, it’s just that the floor has got further away ?. I can still touch my toes when I’m sitting down ?.

I find jackets have too short arms for me these days. When trying to reach shelves etc my arms have shrunk. My height is reducing whilst my girth is increasing.

I thought it was the clothes as I had to move up a dress size. I told one assistant in a posh shop that I was getting fat - not turning into an ape with long arms. She didn’t know what to say! I now buy jumpers with three quarter length sleeves.

Well, I hope mine shrink. When I was younger I had disproportionately long arms, and some kids likened me to an ape!

Sheilasue and David

Try buying a front fastening bra.

I'm lucky with height and bone length. Even with osteoporosis in hip and spine I haven't lost any height or arm length. Keeping supple with Tai Chi but my one big problem is cutting toenails, especially my big toes. My nails are thick and ingrown. I have to use scissors with sharp points just to get them under the corner of the nail, invariably I jab the points into my toe and then there's blood everywhere. Spend the next ten minutes with toes swathed in loo paper.
Bradford, I'm going to browse your friends site for extra strong toenail scissors that don't poke holes in my toes.

Yoga is definitely the way to go. We have ladies in our class almost 90 and still practicing x

I do Pilates once a week to try and stay supple (as well as walking my dogs twice a day). This has helped me lose weight, but now my skin is to big and lizardy and batwings abound. I can reach my toenails at a pinch, but only after lifting my belly 'apron' of skin out of the way to see my feet. My arms and legs have always been short, so I can appreciate the can't reach thing! Barbara Cartland was right when she said "after the age of 60, you can either have the 'face' or the 'figure', but you can't have both. I am off to dye my hair pink and buy some doughnuts now!

Weeeme At my friend's constant urging I tried a Beginners' Yoga class. The trouble is that I needed my glasses to see what the instructor was doing, and my hearing aids to hear the instructions.

I found that every time I strayed from the vertical they kept dropping off (the glasses/hearing-aids, I mean!) It was a major problem, so I did the sensible thing, and gave up!

I’ve got to say that I find putting tights on a struggle....particularly those thick ,opaque ones that don’t stretch much. It’s like trying to fold a grapefruit in half!

Bluebelle, how exactly do you manage to weigh each body part separately??

Cutting toenails are easy- I get DH to do mine !

I realised earlier this week that my one arm seems to be slightly shorter than the other - not noticeable but I noticed the arms of my cardigans are slightly ruckled up on the left side ??

I find I can to some extent counteract the shrinkage by doing some simple exercises daily. Basically raising and lowering my arms horizontally to shoulder level, stretching my arms as far above my head as possible, then swinging my arms forward and back to the position associated with marching in double quick tempo. It is important to be as relaxed as possible during this last exercise and to relax completely after the others.

Hope some of you find these helpful too.

I have lost two inches in height so can no longer reach top shelves and because of severe painful arthritis in both knees cannot reach bottom shelves. Have much difficulties in putting on knickers, tights and shoes. Everything takes so much time. My hips and tummy have put on fat but arms and legs thin.
The joys of old age! Thank goodness my brain still functions.
I was fine until my early eighties, doing all the decorating and gardening etc.