Hi, my name is Amanda and I am 18 years old. I am a college student at NAU. In August of 2006 I began experiencing pain, swelling, and redness in my left knee. I went to my primary doctor who sent me for an x-ray. The x-ray came back normal so I was then sent for an MRI. The MRI too came back normal. I was put on an anti-inflammatory, but experienced very little relief. My primary then sent me to an orthopedic surgeon. He had no answers, but decided to send me to physical therapy. This continued for about a month, however I did not get any relief from this. I went back to the orthopedic surgeon, but was discouraged when he began to think this was all in my head. I decided to get a second opinion and went to a new orthopedic surgeon. He took new x-rays and saw that I had chondromalacia patella in both knees. His idea was a shot of cortisone in my left knee cap and more physical therapy. The shot of cortisone did not work nor did more physical therapy. About a month later the orthopedic surgeon decided a bone scan would be a good idea to rule out infection and cancer. I must say this was definitly the most frightening test. The scan came back clear. I continued the physical therapy in hopes that it would work. Blood work was done, however it only showed high levels of inflammation. In April of 2007 I began experiencing pain, swelling and redness in both of my hands. I went back to my primary who decided to send me to a rheumatologist. She sent me for more blood work and tried another anti-inflammatory. Again the blood work only showed high levels of inflammation. The rheumatologist decided to try putting me on a low dose of prednisone every other day for about two weeks, in hopes that this would finally help. Again this did nothing. In August of 2007, I left home to go to college. Since then I have been researching as much as I can trying to find an answer for myself. I have been back to my primary doctor twice, yet the blood work still shows the same thing and the medications she has tried still do nothing. The pain is now in both knees and I have even begun to have problems with my feet. Tingling in my hands does not surpise me, it only adds to the confusement of what is going on with my body. I am only 18 years old and I feel as though I am walking like someone who is in the 80's.
Sorry for the long introduction. If anyone has gone through something similar and has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate them.
Hi Amanda,
I hope you are in the wrong place! If not click on the active topics on the top of the page and ask your questions there. Most people hang out there for some reason. There is a wealth of information and knowledge here and many of our members are more than happy to do some of the research for you if your not sure how to find the info yourself. I would find another Rheumy as some people have searched for years before they found a great one that works well for and with them. Good luck and I hope you do NOT belong here.
Jay