Bone spurs and topical corticosteroids

[briceryant]

Hello,

A few weeks after getting meniscectomy on my right knee, my left knee started experiencing a lot of localized pain to the right of the kneecap. I finally got it checked out a couple weeks ago (a few months after the pain had started) and discovered that my cartilage and meniscus were not torn/fractured as I'd feared, however that I had mild osteoarthritis including a bone spur which appeared to be causing the pain based on its location. My surgeon said I might only need to put steroid gel on it for a few weeks and I've been doing so (5% ketoprofen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketoprofen) for the last 2.5 weeks. The pain has gone down, but at this point I'd say I'm becoming very disappointed - the first few days I really felt it was healing everything as the pain went away fast, but now the pain has returned somewhat; I'd say the pain is about 50% of what it was before starting steroid treatment, which is good but not great considering the initial pain was rather serious.

Anyways, has anybody had this experience with a bone spur? Anyone have any idea how long it might take for the pain to go away or whether I should consider other treatments?

Thanks.

[KW]

I do not believe a topical corticosteroid will ever "heal" a bone spur.  It will decrease the inflammation caused by the bone spur which will make you feel better.

[briceryant]

By "healing" I meant it appeared that the inflammation was going down and quickly; supposedly bone spurs aren't structurally harmful in general so if the pain/inflammation goes away and I can return to normal activities without pain then I will consider the problem healed. So I'm asking if the pain will continue to go down, if the inflammation might generally stop at some point: if anybody has any experience with this. Am I going to be smearing gel on my knee 3 times a day for the rest of my life, without the pain going away? Certainly the prognosis must be better than that.