Can you tell me about arthritis?
Asked by
JLeslie (
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February 1st, 2024
from iPhone
My husband was diagnosed with arthritis in his knee. We don’t accept it. Lol. He hurt his knee one day and since then it gives him trouble. It hurts most going down stairs.
He doesn’t wake up with it hurting, it’s when he uses it in certain motions.
His mom has bad arthritis in her fingers, and she needs to move her fingers in the morning to try to loosen them up. What my husband has isn’t like that.
My family doesn’t have arthritis so I have no experience with it.
He had an mri done and the doctor said arthritis and suggested doing nothing.
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Last year I was diagnosed with arthritis in my knee. It’s gone now, and I am better.
“Arthritis” is basically a broad term that refers to any number of conditions/circumstances that include inflammation, degeneration, and damage of joint tissue.
If you don’t agree with the doctor, go to an orthopedic specialist, there are some palliative treatments (like steroid shots) that may help.
He went to an orthopedist for the diagnosis, but we are going to go for a second opinion.
So who would you believe?
There are so many degrees of arthritis. I have a cousin who what diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis when she was 15. It changed her life and had to move from a cold humid climate to Phoenix. It still left disfigured her joints and created pain her whole life.
Mildly arthritic joints occur.on the other end of the scale. Don’t deny a diagnosis. Get a second opinion if you disagree. I wouldn’t ignore it and say “everything feels better this week”. But that is just me.
@Forever_Free To be clear the doctor recommended do nothing except avoid what hurts.
Not sure how that is ignoring anything.
@canidmajor Between the two doctor if they differ? Who knows. For now I believe my husband.
Sounds like it might have been an injury form a trauma event.
It couldn’t hurt to do ice messages, compression bandage and elevation. Also use ibuprofen therapy to decrease pain and swelling.
Give time for healing.
Good luck
When I was in my late teens I hiked a lot. My legs were very muscular- I called them tree-trunk-legs! Then I began to have trouble with my knees. But the crazy thing was they only hurt if I was going downhill. I stopped hiking, and my problem disappeared.
Years later I discovered the problem. I needed physical therapy to strengthen the muscle that was weak and that the other muscles were overcompensating.
In your search for a solution physical therapy is also something for you to look into.
The injury happened 18 months ago.
@snowberry I wondered about PT.
PT is almost never a wrong move.
He says it feels bone on bone.
@JLeslie Google Post Traumatic Arthritis. It is very possibly that. It’s arthritis that stems from trauma like a broken bone or torn ligaments.
@JLeslie Why are you and your husband so against a diagnosis of arthritis?
@chyna Because we have been through so many misdiagnosis about so many things, we aren’t very trusting, especially when there is an “event” that we can pinpoint.
My husband doesn’t like that no treatment options were given, not even what could be a treatment if it gets worse.
I do like that the doctor wasn’t straight to knee replacement.
The suggestion above of post-traumatic arthritis by the two jellies sounds worth looking into, I’ll send that to my husband.
@JLeslie I’m surprised, with all the research you do, you hadn’t heard of that before. I was made aware of it 45 years ago, after major kidney surgery.
@canidmajor I said up front I know very little about arthritis. I don’t do a lot of research, I just know a lot about certain things. Plenty of topics I know slim to nothing.
Didn’t the doctor recommend something like NSAIDS which are commonly prescribed for arthritis and joint pain? A friend also takes a supplement that she feels helps with her joints.
@janbb He takes an NSAID once in a while. He hasn’t taken them regularly for several days to see if it would make it better overall. I also want him to get his D tested, but for me low D usually affects my muscles not my joints. I did have a time a few years ago where my joints were hurting, I asked a Q here about it, but it was all of my large joints at once, it was weird. It resolved itself.
I dug up his MRI. It says: mild osteoarthritis with thinning of the articular cartilage. Everything else is perfect. That doesn’t sound to me like it should cause a lot of pain.
” Mild osteoarthritis (OA) causes joint pain and stiffness. It commonly affects the knees, hips, or spine but can also occur in other joints. Stiffness is usually worse in the morning, while the pain often peaks at night and after use.”
“Mild osteoarthritis is treated with over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers and physical therapy. Cold packs, moist heat, and braces or orthotics can also ease mild OA symptoms.”
https://www.verywellhealth.com/mild-osteoarthritis-5113826
@JLeslie Is it possible that even though the pain should be mild, your husband doesn’t handle pain well? Different people experience pain differently, so maybe what should be mild is to him, something worse.
@jca2 I think he gets more annoyed than me when he doesn’t feel great, but I don’t think of him as having a low pain threshold. People I know with low thresholds are crazy nervous about any medical procedure, and they take pain killers to do their best to avoid any sort of discomfort. He’s calling it a pain level 5. When he does something to make it hurt a lot maybe a little higher, and I think he is completely free of pain most of the time.
Is it possible he also has an ACL injury ?
^^Everything on the MRI report is normal except for the cartilage I mentioned above. I’m going to have him test his vitamin D. Maybe that will help build back cartilage if his D is low now and he increases it.
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