KNEE ARTHRITIS - General principles of managing Osteoarthritis of the knee :

Knee OA...and then foot OA...and now... - - Posted by enuff81020 (enuff81020), 31 December 2002

Hi!  i finally bit the bullet in august of 2000 and went to an OS to have my knee situation checked out.  they had been hurting in any number of ways for at least 6 or 7 years.  the doc took x-rays and brought them in to me with the comment "You have very interesting x-rays..."  He showed me arthritis--and as a result of that visit, I had my first cirtisone injection in my left knee and my first scope in my right.

As I recuperated from that scope, I started having this weird "minor" pain in my foot--that just wouldn't stop.  After 6 weeks, i brought it up to my OS--who x-rayed and found a stress fracture and OA.  that took over a year to heal and ended up needing surgery to clean off the bone spurs as well.

in the meantime, I had many treatments on my really rough knees--which culminated on Dec. 16 with a TKR on my left knee.  Two weeks before my surgery, the doc pulled me off of my anti-inflammatories.  Two days later, my foot was awful with swelling and pain--i had to get out my orthotic and go back to icing it.  By the time I had my surgery, my fingers became swollen and my hips were aching.  Post-surgically, my ankles and shoulders were part of the equation.  Over this past weekend, my left hand started aching and I found I couldn't lift anything.

I had a visit with my ortho this morning--for a post-op check and suture removal...and I showed him my hand.  It turns out that this is arthritis in my thumb causing all of this grief.  He's putting me back on my anti-inflammatory meds today.

I'm wondering if this is really the OA my first doc diagnosed me with...should I be having something else looked into?  I thought OA was local, "wear and tear" arthritis--and I'm puzzled ovwer why I'm uncomfortable in so many of my major joints...

What do you think?  Sylvia
Posted by Rich_NYC (Rich_NYC), 31 December 2002

Happy Knee Year Sylvia
I've go OA in my knees and lower spine, with pain in most of my other joints as well , very unpleasant.  Hope you have luck with the cortisone, didn't have much luck myself.  Try this site , lots of info http://www.allaboutarthritis.com/portal/DPUY/AAA
I'm waiting to see a Rheumy later this month, so I've got my fingers crossed.  Don't let anybody pass it off as "ONLY" arthritis, I hate that Here is hope for a better New Year for us all
Rich
Posted by enuff81020 (enuff81020), 2 January 2003

Thanks for the response Rich...

I do not doubt that I have arthritis...and I would never call it "only arthritis" (although my ortho indicated that my TKR would be progressing differently if it were "just arthritis" as opposed to the destruction and mess that I had.)

I'm just curious how it could be OA--wear and tear--degenerative--or whatever you want to call it, when it is hitting so many different locations--not just my large weight bearing joints, but all over.  Somthing seems a bit off to me--I have friends with RA and other forms of arthritis that seem to be this widespread.

I have learned (the hard way, unfortunately) that it is in my best interest to aske questions--and ask and ask and ask.

Thanks again, Sylvia
Posted by enuff81020 (enuff81020), 1 July 2003

Wow,I am glad to see this thread--because I'm dealing with it again.  Since I posted this, I have been diagnosed  with OA in my thumbs and my left wrist nd have had a deQuervain's release on the same wrist as  well.  It has been a stinker to  deal with.

I've been off  my NSAIDs for over a week now and have a couple more to go.  At this point in time, my back is  a major player along with shoulders, hips, knees, jaw, feet, and so  on.

It is nasty--and scary to  feel this all at the same time.

I really do think I need a referral to a rheumy--we do not have many of them here and tere is such a long waiting list...but this is lousy stuff.  I had a series of blood  tests a whileback which didn't indicate RA or someother auto-immune conditions, but my  doc told  me those aren't always conclusive--unless they are positive.

Hmm, same story, different day!  Sylvia

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