Let's Talk Knees

[Guest guest]

I have been having lots of trouble with my knees lately and I'm wondering if

anyone has a similar issue and if so, what was helpful to you. I have RA

and OA in both knees, so there a couple of issues going on in each knee.

In October, my orthopedic surgeon injected both knees with cortisone and

Supartz (Hyralonic acid) and said that if it helped, I would get 3 to 6

months of relief from the knee pain. Well, it worked for maybe a week or 2

- absolutely not worth it. I went back in to see him yesterday and he took

another set of x-rays so that he can keep a close eye on some of the

problems within. Here's where we're stuck. I'm 'only 40' so he is really

hesitant to do anything aggressive. He feels that because of the

inflammatory problems, I'm not a great candidate for the normal surgical

procedures that might help the OA problems. He did say that I'm eventually

looking at a total knee replacement, but that should be a long term

consideration. I'm also kind of a surgeon's worst nightmare because of a

blood clotting disorder and severe allergies to most painkillers. Ugh

In the meantime, he has sort of left me with " learning to cope with it " .

He did give me a month's worth of Celebrex samples to try and said that he

will talk to my rheumy about maybe adjusting my RA meds to see if we can

find a better combo. I'm currently on Plaquenil and injectable MTX. I

did got to physical therapy and they gave me some things to work on at home,

but even the therapist wasn't really positive and pretty much told me that

it won't get better, I will just have to learn to adapt. I do have knee

braces that I sometimes wear, but I don't think they really help much, so I

only use them when I'm going to walking a lot.

So.anyone have lots of knee problems at a 'young' age and what did you do?

Does this all sound right or should I see a second opinion? This surgeon

is a family friend, and I do trust him, but I hate the idea that there isn't

really anything I can do to help these dang knees.

Thanks in advance,

Ronda