Re: Need some help from the group

[Guest guest]

A friend of mine sent me the following post. Poor thing is so scared she has RP. I felt her sypmtoms were TMJ, but I wanted some input from you. I think that there are A LOT of us with TMJ in the group. Any responses I will send to her. Thanks in advance.

Hi ! I'm so frustrated and I'm hoping you can help me. As you know

my Rheumatologist ordered an MRI of my right TMJ to explore the possibility

of TMJ causing my right ear discomfort. Well, the report came back. His

nurse called me to tell me the results but said she couldn't answer any

questions. She said he's out of town for 2 weeks and she'll call me when he

returns! UGH!!! So, I had them fax a copy of the results to my ENT. He

just called me and he said he has no idea what it means. The report said,

'meniscus degenerative changes are present.' Everything else came back

normal. (He also said it's an incomplete report because they only did the

MRI on one side so they have nothing to compare it to.) So, I look up

'meniscus' on the internet and I find out that it is the disc and is made up

of cartilage. And RP attacks cartliage, right? So, I asked the ENT if RP

could have caused degenerative changes in the meniscus. He said, 'RP

doesn't affect the TMJ.' Well, I've read that it does and I told him that.

He told me to bring that information with me the next time I see him. He

asked me if my Rheumatologist thought I had RP and I said no. No one thinks

I have it because the only remotely similar symptom I have to it is the

occasional right ear pain. My ear has never gotten red, never gotten

swollen or inflammed. When it aches it only aches for a short while, maybe

an hour or two and then goes away. But when it does ache I feel a

stretching feeling along my jaw when I open and close and I'm also starting

to hear a crackling sound in my ear when I'm having the discomfort and open

and close. I can squeeze any part of my ear and feel no pain. It seems to

only hurt in the back of my ear, closest to my head. So, with your network

of RP friends could you see what any of them might know about this. Has

anyone had RP affect the meniscus/disk of the TMJ joint. My joint is fine,

no discomfort and the MRI confirmed that everything with the joint itself is

normal. How does RP affect the TMJ? The ENT did say that degeneration of

the meniscus could indicate arthritis, wear n tear and/or age related.