Chem, Your Mom should ask her primary care Dr. for a referral to a rheumatologist. Her treatment would depend on the type of arthritis that she may have. My husband had rheumatoid arthritis, which is very painfull. RA is an autoimmune disease and is associated with MDS and cancer.Some of the NSAIDS and other meds are associated with thrombocytopenia & leukemia as well. This is why it’s so important to have a specialist diagnose and do the prescribing. There are some wonderfull meds out there, but none without some side affects. Like your mom the RA was the most painfull part of his illness. There are some very good web sites to research. medicineworld.org
AutoImmuneIllnesses&DegenerativeDiseases
RHEUMA21ST.com
I will give you the names of the meds that he was treated with and the side affects, if you are interested. Best if she would go to a specialist though. It can be a long process of trial and error. I hope that your Mom will get some relief. Take care, Ellie