osteo-arthritis questions

[knee]

Probably not spelled correctly...who'd planned to have this disease in the first place. What I want imput on from you out there knowledgable in this field...is this disease progresses from joint to joint, right? I have bunnions...but they don't hurt..thank god! Thumbs were next. Got one trapezize bone replace in left hand...now have resudial wrist pain. Have not done right ...just don't use it much...and take vicodin when the 650 mg. of Tylenot don't work. Then knees...figure knees should get done first...as I'm now reduced to about six blocks a day...and swim just to keep muscles strong...but even that is beginning to have less effect. Now, because of all the hip/ab abduction, hamstring machine exercises..plus the swimming, got pain way back in the gluts...so am icing them. What a deal! So, my question is...does one still get knees done...then just wait for the hips to join in the merriment? Anyone have any remidies that really work? All researched info much appreciated! Still ongoing battle with surgeon to get moving on the bilaterial knee replacement...then figure do right thumb...and try to repair left wrist...does it never end?

 

[Josephine]

It's spelled perfectly, hips! There are two kinds of 'arthritis' which are very different in aetiology and progress but the effects are much the same.

Rheumatoid arthritis, also known as poly-arthritis (poly=many) which is an auto-immune disorder. It's thought the immune system turns on the body - specifically joints for some reason - and starts to destroy the articular cartilage and other tissues. This can affect some or all of the body's joints at once. Most commonly affected are hands, arms, knees, hips and feet in that order.

Osteo-arthritis is a degenerative condition which effects one joint. This may have an original source as in a major trauma or some activity one has undertaken (footballers spring to mind!) on a regular basis. However, it can also occur because of other factors which include obesity, poor posture and even (would you believe it) inactivity. Medical conditions such as - in childhood - avascular necrosis, Perthes, congenital hip displacement or - in adulthood - avn and osteoporosis can be responsible too.

So - O/A doesn't go from joint to joint per se. The odds are that if you have one hip and/or knee affected then the other will be also but, as the song says, "It ain't necessarily so"!!

The reason for this is that people are generally side dominant meaning, just as we tend to left or right handed, we tend to put our weight more on one side than another throughout our lives. Thus it's not uncommon to find one hip/knee becomes diseased and not the other.

On the other hand, if a person has led a hard life, doing much manual work for instance, it is also common to see a number of joint affected.

Hope this answers your question!

BTW, bunions are not a form of O/A but the joint can become arthritic as a result of them.

 

[JudyS]

Hi Jo,
I have been wondering about RA as I have arthritis in my whole spine (which my spine doc says is a lot more that I should have at my age), of course right hip, both knees, big toes, my right shoulder , now my left is starting to have little twinges, my ankles(or feet) now hurt, and some of my fingers now hurt on occasion.,

Doesn't RA make the joints deformed? Would the surgeon see anything different when doing a joint replacement? Or on imaging?

My hypopituitarism is being attributed to a rare autoimmune condition, which cannot be proved without taking a biopsy of the pituitary (which of course will not be done)

I just feel like everything aches now!!
I have been and am fighting to stay extremely active. I also got upgraded(not on an airline unfortunately) to osteoporosis. My endocrinologist said it was not by imaging, but by 3 fractures this year. I am not really sure the femur fracture should be considered non-traumatic though.

I would appreciate ;your thoughts
thanks
Judy

 

[Tommy Utah]

Hello I'm a once and future hippy RTHR postop 6 weeks LTHR a couple weeks hence. My hips are shot from 30 years of skiing with 20 years of over 100 days a season. However I peek in over here as it is also my future as one of my knees has been described by an OS as having really really bad osteo arthritis. This comes from a traumatic injury 29 years ago where the ACL & MCL both snapped. subsequently. Due to a great rebuild back then and 3 other surgeries later I was able to do most all of that skiing. Just two days ago I had an episode with this knee where something a tendon or some such got caught or snagged on the wrong side of a big bad bone spur resulting in a trip to the doc for yet another joint draining/cotisone shots session. The upshot of all this is that a comparison side by side image to my never injured right knee is astounding...it looks like a knee from someone else years younger..totally aligned, no bone spurs, and a nice big gap where all the cartiledge and miniscus should be.

Just curious has anyone else had this bone spur induced trauma happen. The doc called it a something something occurrence using big medical terms I don't remeber???