Major pain In both knees-Patelltofemoral they say ? I have a question..

[claudius]

Just back from my Ortho.. my third visit after 8 weeks of PT.  I am a 40 year old female in good shape, have never been a runner... etc.  After all the PT, my knees are as bad as ever.  My OS felt my knees with his hand and hears the crunching and clicking.  Gave me my second Cortisone shot in right knee and first in left knee.  Gave me an non-steroid anti-inflammatory.  Side effects don't look great now that I've read the warnings for the presciption.
My question is, if he says the cartilage probably looks like "tuna fish" which is why its so irritating.  Won't the pain always be there unless it is smoothed out ?
He also testing me for Lymes and Rhematoid arthritis.  No MRI yet, just x-rays.
Thanks for your help

[Linds]

Hmm... good questions, I hope some other people will reply. I'm not a doctor , just a fellow knee pain patient. 

If your cartilage is all torn to shreads... tuna fish... there must be a reason why.  Smoothing out the cartilage would help, provided that is where your pain is coming from... but if you dont' address the cause of the damage to the cartilage than it will just come back again.    What you need to find out is why the damage is occuring.  It can be related to a tramatic injury.. car accident, blow to the knee etc, as well as maltracking of the patella where there is too much pressure on one area of the kneecap.

An MRI probably wouldn't be too helpful in this regard, they are really better for menisci and ligament injury.

Hopefully the meds and the cortisone will help... bring you some relief

Hang in there, happy Holidays

Wishing you a less painful 2006

Linds

[harry78]

I think that if your knees are giving you problems with living your normal life there could be chance to have Meniscal transplants to replace the damaged structures- possibly needing further arthroscopies in both knees to see what is really the cause. This could even be down to wearing the wrong shoes and chosing proper orthotics to cure it.
Get inquisitive about your condition, especially as both knees are affected.
Good luck Harry

[stgiles16]

Harry, tuna fish would refer to articular cart. not the meniscus. They do not wear exactly alike (I dont think) If the articular cart. is causing your pain, Linds is right, smoothing it out would help but you do need to find out what caused the damage. 

Do you have other joints that hurt? Just wondering about the testing for Lyme and Ra. I test negative for RA but they still think that I have it and fibromyalgia. It ain't fun somedays.

good luck
missy

[harry78]

Whoops, I'll stick to Cruciate ligaments then.

[claudius]

  THANK YOU FOR ALL THE HELPFUL SUGGESTIONS AND THOUGHTS ! Happy Holidays ! :