Joan, so sorry you are having that kind of pain. Only you will know when it's time to consider surgery. In the meantime: ICE! Ice is your friend....
Had a guild meeting on Saturday. One of the sweet ladies had bought a Studio cutter, and a small fortune in dies! She was kindly letting us bring fabric and have a cutting party with her dies. I had her cut up 4 collections of fabric for me, to make Take Five quilts. When I got home I started to sew them together and couldn't get a 12.5" block with a scant 1/4" seam! One side was always small so I had to cut every block down to 12.25". Then I started to measure the pieces with my acrylic rulers, and they were so off! The pieces that make the Take 5 block are an 8.5" square, an 8.5x4.5" rectangle, and three 4.5" squares. The 8.5 actually measured 8.5x 8 and 3/8". Same for the other pieces... one direction on each was a full 1/8" short! I thought, 'they have a nerve to call their company "Accuquilt" when it's dies are anything but accurate'.
Anybody else find this kind of inaccuracy in their accuquilt dies?