Pain in hip joints

[Guest guest]

I am hoping that someone on the list can help me.

I am at a loss at what is going on, and so are my various doctors. The

nuero-ortho surgern, the hip specialist, my rheumy, and even my PCP's nurse

practioner (who is wonderful, and has helped me find some of the best specialist

available.) I realize that I have multiple physical problems, and most likely

several auto-immune diseases, including RA and PsA. I have have Cervical(Dec

08) and Lumbar(Oct 09) surgeries. Both very successful. I had a major amount of

bone spurs on my spine that were cleaned up, and fusion done. I probably had

the hip pain earlier, but with the pain from the facet joint arthrits, and

stenosis I could tell where the pain was coming from. I thought all the pain

was from sciatica. My Neuro/ortho surgeon ordered MRIs of my lumbar spine and

both hips. The spine looks very good, the surgery has improved the quality of

my life immeasurably. The hip MRI's should lambal tears, swelling, bone spurs,

some cartiledge damage, etc, etc. According to the hip specialist, the left hip

will be a candidate for hip surgery in a few years, but it's not 'there' yet.

He is also not convinced that the pain is coming from the hip joints. He thinks

the pain is from somewhere in the spine. Or possibility a systemic infection.

My Rheumy thinks I have some sort of soft tissue rheumatic disease, and he will

be working with me on figuring this all out. All I can think for my rheumy is

it was so easier when I was just a garden variety RA patient, even if I didn't

also respond very long to the anti-THF's.

In the meantime, I have constant pain in my hips. I can feel the swelling in my

hips. The pain goes down to my knees, and ankles, it's awful. My doctor know I

am in pain and are doing pain management, so that is kind of okay, the med

really don't make the pain go away. The hip surgeon said he does do

occassionial hip replacement on RA patients because of constant swelling/pain

and sudden onset. I would like to add, the majority of the pain started in

January. As of December after my lumbar spinal surgery, I was off all pain

meds, and doing very well. Since January, I have been in the Mother of All RA

Flares. In the many years I have had RA, these have months have been whoppers!

Any thoughts? suggestions? Thank you,