New here with some questions | Arthritis Information

I recently had arthroscopic surgery on my right knee. The original finding was chondrocalcinosis. My original orthopedic surgeon felt I needed a knee replacement. I'm only in my early 40's, so I decided I was just going to live with the knee pain. A year went by and it was getting worse, I couldn't even straighten my leg, the pain and swelling were getting unbearable.

I decided to go see another orthopedic, who also saw the chondrocalcinosis, some arthritis and felt the major problem was a torn meniscus in 3 places. (this was what was seen on an mri and xray)

He thought that he'd be able to clean some of this up arthroscopically. When he got into my knee, things were a lot worse than he thought. He found a lot of inflammatory arthritis. He thinks right now, that since I only have this problem in one joint, that it may no be indicative of Rheumatoid Arthritis, but is going to keep an eye on me.

After a little research, I found some things that I'm hoping are just coincidental. I've had pleurisy, iritis, (which when I was diagnosed they did a blood test for Rheumatoid, it was negative) I have tendonitis in my left achilles which comes and goes. I get a red, scaly, itchy rash on my hands and fingers that I was told was eczema.

I have a lot of fatigue, joint/muscle pain, etc which I always thought were caused by my other medical conditions, which are Chiari and Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.

I'm going to mention the pleurisy, iritis and tendonitis at my next appt, but just wanted to find out some info. on my own first.

Does anyone feel that with my past history that there's a possibility that I may have Rheumatoid even though right now, it was only found in one joint?

Thanks for any info you all may be able to share.

J

It is possible to have serum negative RA, but I dont know that your symptoms point that way. What I got from reading your history made me think of either maybe Psoratic Arthritis or Lupus (SLE). Of course it could be just alot of unrelated problems. The best course of action would be to do a little research on the symptoms you are having and then try to get an appointment with a Rhuematologist. You can just google search your symptoms and it will give you many websites that will get you started. One of the things that tends to be classic in RA is bilateral joint pain. Meaning that the joint problems usually occur in both hands, or both feet, knees at the same time. One may be worse than the other but is still flaring on both sides.

Thanks crunchy. Since my doctor mentioned rheumatoid, I'd thought I'd start here.

I've had years of strange illnesses and symptoms. When I was diagnosed with chiari and pots, I figured those ilnesses were the cause of or contributed to everything. With the recent finding of inflammatory arthritis along with my past history, I think I need to find out if something else is going on.
I would rule out Lyme disease. If you click on my OA page and then click on Lyme symptoms on the menu you can get a good idea if you might have Lyme.

Ron

Lyme is a serious and very underdiagnosed disease which can cause permanent damage. My cousin had Lyme, undiagnosed, and encephalitis, liver problems, memory problems, lots of residual problems even now that he's being treated.

Psoriatic Arthritis is what came to my mind when I read this, though. You should have them both checked out.

Make a date with a rhuematologist! All this stuff can be treated sucessfully even if they can't DX it for sure for a couple of years.

Very bad OA can cause inflammatory arthritis in a joint or two, (can be really extreme) but that is better than a whole body progressive incurable disease like RA. Rhuematologists treat this too, as well as DX RA. Please see one soon. They can really help you.

I have been seeing docs for over 20 yrs & to be honest I still don't know for sure what I have. My symptoms don't fit neatly into any of their boxes. I had only one joint involved for many yrs-my elbow was the only thing that showed arthritis. I knew better suffered w/horrible pain throughout body in many joints & can tell them where I am going to eventually have a problem. They've even told my my pain was Fibro in certain areas-wish they had been right.Both ankles & feet now affected.Had iritis(uveitis) .

I totally agree w/Marian. If they can at least dx you w/rheumatic or autoimmune disease many of the drugs cross over for treatment of most of them. Different meds work for different people. Diet & excersice play a key role too.

Good luck! Peace, Tam