Do you have arthritis or know someone with arthritis?

I was recently diagnosed with arthritis & I have a muscle spasm that causes neck pain. I went to a chiropractor & he was able to help with my neck pain, but now my arthritis is bothering more. They sold a drink with glucosamine, chondroitin & MSM:
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o81/roniceb/glucosamine.jpg

I don’t want to keep on taking pain killers & actually sometimes they don’t help, so I bought vitamins at the store with glucosamine, chondroitin & MSM which was cheaper than the drink (but my prescription for pain killers is free since I have no copayment). Do you know if these vitamins will actually help my arthritis or am I just wasting my money?
I was asking about the weather because sometimes I hear people say they can tell it’s going to rain because their bones ache, but I myself don’t notice that, I hurt everyday. I just was wondering why people say it if it isn’t true.

My dog is a 4 year old puppy mill rescue. She has a lot of bone deformities and issues with her joints and muscles. She takes half a vitamin for joints every day (Glucosamine) and the vet put her on Rimadyl recently because she was having pain in one of her legs. The leg has bone deformations and she puts a lot of pressure on her wrist joint, especially when she squats to pee… she twists her leg almost 180 degrees to get a good squat.

I give her the joint vitamins, and I wrap her leg in my electric blanket to put some heat on it for about 10 minutes… and she gets deep tissue massages, but she did something to it, and it’s not very sensitive so she doesn’t want me to touch it.

I gave her Rimadyl 2x now and both times she got very lethargic. I took her off it today and she was back to her normal self, but you could tell her leg was still bothering her.

I wanted to see if I could safely give her just half a dose of Rimadyl instead of a full tablet, and thats when I read all the severe side effects. So now I don’t know if I want to give it to her at all… and just wait till after Christmas and ask the vet to recommend something else…

thoughts?
Both the vitamin and the rimadyl was recommended by the vet.
My dog has a great quality of life. She’s very playful, she’s very lively normally, and this is the first time she’s been in pain like this, and it was most likely caused by straining her leg too much or tripping on her way up the stairs because. Her bone issues make it harder on her, but her quality of life is still great because 90% of the time she’s not in much if any pain.