Well, F**K!

[cassidyrose]

I just spoke with a nurse at my doctor's office and my x-rays came back with not great news. Apparently, the x-rays show early arthritis in my knees. The type of arthritis supposedly is a type of tendonitis. I will have to get an appointment with the doctor to get more details.

I am really depressed now. I knew my knees were shit, but I wasn't expecting arthritis at 27 years of age.

Fuck.

Comments

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Oh, shit.
*hugs*

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

thanks...I feel better today and it is not as bad as I had feared.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

Damn. *hugs*

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[hopeforyou.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

*snuggle*

I'm sorry. :/ How weird. I haven't heard of arthritis like that. If you want resources, alt.support.arthritis is a really wonderful place.

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

Thanks...As I noted in my post today the doctor explained that it is basically casused by overuse and is what is typically seen in runners. Thanks for the resource.

UGH

[eeyore74.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry! *hugs*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I know how you feel - I have it too. ITB? If so, there are GOOD stretches that help an awful lot.

*hugs*

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

What's ITB? The doc said that basically this a result of overuse and is typical of runners (in my case, dancing, aerobics, and tennis over the years). What kind of stretches help you?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Caveat: all this is from two-year-old memory, from the doc who diagnosed me...

ITB is the (I'm going to spell this wrong) ilio-tibial band, a band of tendons?ligaments? on the lateral side of the thigh. They start in some butt muscle, head down past the kneecap and attach there along the way, and end at a knob on the top end of the shin bone. Having this band too tight irritates the @#$! out of it as it rubs over bumps in the bone with every step. Overtightness also causes the band to pull the patella out of alignment, resulting in way-too-early degeneration of the patellar cartilege.

This is more common in women than in men, because Nature designed us wrong... er, I mean, because we have wide hips. Everything's just a little out of alignment all down the leg. (So saith the doctor. Why we don't just have a wide stance and be done with it, I don't know.)

Lots of quadriceps exercises help -- the quadriceps hang onto the patella in a couple places and can fight the ITB's off-center pull. Any stretch that lengthens the outside side of the thigh is good, but the king of them all is lying on my side with my thigh resting on top of a rigid foam cylinder and using my body weight to grind the roller up and down my thigh. Hurts like hell. Does help the tightness though.