Hi guys
I had a cortisteroid hip injection yesterday, done under x-ray and guided by dye (a 'fluroscopy'). It showed early bone damage with, I think, bone spurs. The radiologist suggested an MRI and I have been lucky enough to get an appointment in 2 weeks time (MOST unusual) with my rheumatologist, to discuss. I suspect he will want to increase my mtx dose, in view of the continuing inflammation activity.
I wondered if early bone damage is always permanent or not? I have reactive arthritis (ReA) rather than RA, but they are very similar and ReA is an inflammatory type of arthritis too (one of the 'Spondyloarthropathies'.)
Thanks for any thoughts or advice,
The only thing that I have heard that can help with bone damage, other than surgery, is physical therapy. Otherwise, bone damage is permanent. They can improve things sometimes athoscopically, although I don't know if they can do this with the hip.
You need the opinion of both your Rheumy and an Orthopedist. They do view the situation differently. If the pain is not too bad, you may be able to get it under control by doing some physical therapy.
I have bone spurs and cysts that I will just live with until something else develops. Physical therapy does seem to help to some degree. Swimming and water therapy are great for this.
Thanks for the good advice Deanna! I will keep active (walking gives me the most pain, but swimming or cycling work well).
This group is such a godsend!
Wendy,
When I was working with my fitness trainer, he told me that there is a theory that the cartilage can actually grow back through exercise. Now, that I have films that "evidently" don't show as much damage as what I was originally told, I do wonder if this is possible.
That gives me a lot of hope for you. Start with less strenouse exercises first and as you feel like you are outgrowing, then add walking back in. If something hurts, back off. Ideally, you can start with the water but you do eventually want to work back to the weight bearing exercises as this rebuilds bone. If you find that you can only tolerate water exercise, there are actually water weights that you can add to your routine.
My ortho was amazed that my bones were as healthy as they were considering I've been on prednisone for so long. Maybe it was all those months of physical therapy, etc. But this last year, I had not been able to do it every day any more. And, I think that's what has caused me so much troubles with my joints at present (and the Enbrel not working).
It is a constant battle for me as I hate exercise.
Hi Wendy, I'm by no means an expert but I have both OA and RA with bone spurs on various bones. It's my understanding that you can sometimes burnish the spurs by keeping active. I know I'm a lot better off than I was 2 years ago and a lot of that is because I constantly walk and do exercises both on land and in warm water to improve my range of motion. There are people on board with a lot more medical savy like crunchy and Deanna who might be able to explain this better. In general use it or loose it.
Linda
WENDY - Can you please fill me in on the definition of Reactive Arthritis as opposed to regular R.A. I too thought I had reactive arthritis when this all started, I looked it up on the internet, seemed to have similar symptoms, spoke to my doctor etc - it's something that could possibly go away according to the data, but in the end it all turned out to be lifelong R.A. It's my understanding now that the sooner aggressive treatment starts hopefully less damage will occur. Thanks.
Hi Calgary
Reactive arthritis is an inflammatory arthritis, initially triggered by an infection (my trigger was campylobacter, but other food-borne infections, or sexually transmitted infections can also set it going - Chlyamidia is a very common cause). It affects men more than women, with a ratio of something like 8 to 1, so being a woman with it can be a bit lonely
It's treated with the same drugs as RA - I'm on indomethacin, sulphasalzine and mtx. The next step for me is Arava/Enbrel. It mainly targets larger joints and leaves fingers and toes etc alone. It's systemic, like RA and we get annoying stuff like eye inflammation, weird lupus-like rashes, the awful fatigue etc in addition to swollen joints. It's interesting to me how related all the inflammatry types of arthritis are.
I have found this site to be such a help in making me feel less alone (especially living 'down under'.)
All the best to everyone!
Thanks for all the advice, especially about not avoiding the weight-bearing exercise for too long. Good point, especially as I already have thin bones for my age (40) and my Mum and her Mum have/had severe osteoporosis.
Hey, but at least we treat osteoporosis much early these days - I've had 3 yearly DEXA bone scans since I was 30.