Love Oregon. Can you recommend a sunny dry city for someone with Arthritis? (Portland: RV park, buy)

[reneeandjerry]

Hi, My husband and I lived in Clatskanie (?) which was 30 mins from Astoria, for 3 months. It is God's country, as is WA. We live in No. Ca. which is beautiful as well. We are thinking about moving to Oregon, but my husband has back/neck disc problems, so we need to be in warm climate, and only 30 mins from a major hospital and amenities, etc. Can anyone recommend any towns for us? We have two rescue dogs and a rescue kitty, are on a fixed income as well. Thank you SO much and happy holidays!!

[PNW-type-gal]

Sorry to say, no. The driest, sunniest places are on the east side of the Cascades, with considerable snow and cold winter temps. Klamath Falls and Burns are probably the sunniest places in Oregon, but winter temps are well below freezing and it is a looong winter with a couple weeks, max, or spring and straight into summer. The Willamette Valley (Portland, Salem, Eugene) is pretty damp and chill in winter, although usually above freezing. The Coast is cool and damp year-round. The Rogue Valley (Ashland, Medford, Grants Pass) has a damp winter, but shorter and about half as wet as the Willamette Valley, but hot summer temps. If you are looking for year-round warm, sunny and dry, you won't find it in Oregon.

ETA: I see that in the Washington forum they have been recommending Richland and Walla Walla. Those places, like Medford, are sunny by northwest standards, which use damp and overcast Portland and Seattle as the comparison.

[jandoe]

Warm or just dry?

Bend and central Oregon is pretty dry and very sunny. Klamath Falls is pretty sunny all year. But unfortunately, none of these dry / sunny parts of Oregon are warm in the winter. Expect snow and many days below 32 degrees F between October and March if you want to be in the dry areas of Oregon. The high desert is beautiful, the air crisp and refreshing, big blue skies, the sunny days (for me) truly make up for the cold winter temperatures. I don't live in central Oregon anymore but I did for a few years. Summers are AMAZING!

If you truly need to be in a warm and dry climate, I recommend a town in Arizona called Queen Creek. I know someone who moved there for health reasons (coming from Oregon) and she is doing much better down in AZ.

Good luck!

[simplygib]

Sunny, warm and dry do not describe anywhere in Oregon, except possibly during late spring, summer and early fall. As jandoe said, you might want to look at Arizona. If you don't mind putting up with rain and/or cold for at least half the year, then parts of Oregon could be a possibility, but otherwise, probably not.

Another possibility, if you're able - become a snowbird. Enjoy Oregon during the good weather, then head south for the bad. Plenty of folks doing that up here who are lucky enough to not be tied down to a job (me included). Spent last winter in Palm Springs, CA, the winter before in the Phoenix area, and I usually spend at least a month camped out in my truck camper in the Southern California desert. It's quite enjoyable, if you like that sort of thing.

[pdxMIKEpdx]

I have arthritis pretty bad in my knees and feet.
I also live in the Portland area, so I don't get south too much.
In the winter when I am really hurting, I settle for dry and cold.
One of my relatives has a big place outside Prineville and when I hurt really bad, I go there.
It helps!

I don't mind the cold. Really cold and dry I can handle just fine.
It's the 40° wet and damp winter climate of Portland that gets me, especially this year for some reason.

So I stretch and exercise, try to stay active, take my Aleve, and just put up with it.
Some days it's worse that others.
I have tried to correlate my pain with swings in barometric pressure, but after two years of taking pain and weather data, I haven't really found a strong correlation.
I have found that arthritis pain causes my leg muscles to do wierd things when I favor the hurting parts, so for me, staying active is key.
A nice evening soak in the hot tub works wonders too!

I have relatives in Colorado and Arizona that I visit several times a year, and when I am there I notice that the arthritis pain subsides quite a bit (Arizona is better), but I can't bring myself to move out of Oregon.

Good luck with your search, I know how emotionally and physically draining constant pain can be!

BTW, you youngsters take care of yourselves.
That twisted knee or broken ankle you got skiing or something when you were in your 20's-30's will come back to haunt you when you are my age!

[reneeandjerry]

Thank all of you very much. Alot of great advice and ideas.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

You can find sunny and dry in Oregon, but it is cold. It is also not near any major hospitals.

30 minutes from the good hospitals is not going to be cheap.

Perhaps you should take another look at Arizona.

[Hawk J]

Kauai is beautiful, love it there...

Sometimes when it's cold & we get an itch we take the old rv down south fer a spell. To AZ, NV, CA

Its been a lot of fun times at www.avicasino.com Friendly folks & nice rv park, etc.

Have a wonderful adventure...

[GIbornNBred]

As for someone WELL Versed in arthritis and other health issue I'm going to pass on what I've learned and taught others.It is the only way I can survive and I'm so bad of I'm headed for surgery next Monday to start replacing the knees.I seen this last year on Doctor Oz and it works. 1 tsp Turmeric in a lil apple juice in the morning. Yes the have pills but not nearly the dose we need in the PNW !

Natural Arthritis Treatment | Curcumin Shown to be Effective Solution : Natural Society

OK second HUGE thing I have figured out. Take note and maintain your PH balance. This is critical. A normal persons PH is supposed to be 7.2 and yes I know in our world today no one is near normal ! BUT what happens esp with our acidic diet in our country when we take prescription medications ESP Pain meds it sends our PH to the extreme acidic level !!! When we are extremely acidic our kidney cannot dispose of the excess acid and dumps it into our joints ! Causing our joints to erode more quickly and cause more arthritis.

Is Acid Causing Your Joint Pain? How Is Your pH?

And no I'm not touting products. I got tired of living in agony and no one helping me figure out why i hurt. I wish I would of learned about this 20yrs ago. Now today I manage and I'm sure after my knees are replaced Ill be a lot more mobile. I take 1/2 tsp baking soda in a lil water and 1 tsp turmeric in apple juice and I'm in half the pain I used to be. You can buy PH strips on line that are very accurate to see where you are at and can maintain a good level. Because really the only place you can live for arthritis is in a desert and I like my trees to much !!!

Originally Posted by reneeandjerry

Hi, My husband and I lived in Clatskanie (?) which was 30 mins from Astoria, for 3 months. It is God's country, as is WA. We live in No. Ca. which is beautiful as well. We are thinking about moving to Oregon, but my husband has back/neck disc problems, so we need to be in warm climate, and only 30 mins from a major hospital and amenities, etc. Can anyone recommend any towns for us? We have two rescue dogs and a rescue kitty, are on a fixed income as well. Thank you SO much and happy holidays!!

[Sherwoody]

Originally Posted by GIbornNBred

As for someone WELL Versed in arthritis and other health issue I'm going to pass on what I've learned and taught others.It is the only way I can survive and I'm so bad of I'm headed for surgery next Monday to start replacing the knees.I seen this last year on Doctor Oz and it works. 1 tsp Turmeric in a lil apple juice in the morning. Yes the have pills but not nearly the dose we need in the PNW !

Natural Arthritis Treatment | Curcumin Shown to be Effective Solution : Natural Society

OK second HUGE thing I have figured out. Take note and maintain your PH balance. This is critical. A normal persons PH is supposed to be 7.2 and yes I know in our world today no one is near normal ! BUT what happens esp with our acidic diet in our country when we take prescription medications ESP Pain meds it sends our PH to the extreme acidic level !!! When we are extremely acidic our kidney cannot dispose of the excess acid and dumps it into our joints ! Causing our joints to erode more quickly and cause more arthritis.

Is Acid Causing Your Joint Pain? How Is Your pH?

And no I'm not touting products. I got tired of living in agony and no one helping me figure out why i hurt. I wish I would of learned about this 20yrs ago. Now today I manage and I'm sure after my knees are replaced Ill be a lot more mobile. I take 1/2 tsp baking soda in a lil water and 1 tsp turmeric in apple juice and I'm in half the pain I used to be. You can buy PH strips on line that are very accurate to see where you are at and can maintain a good level. Because really the only place you can live for arthritis is in a desert and I like my trees to much !!!

I will try this thanks, but how do you use the PH strips?