Really nasty knee pain!

Claire38

I've been having pain in my right knee for a long time (along with and before most of my other pain from psoriatic enthesopathy, spondylitis etc ). I had an MRI years ago, ordered from an orthopedic clinic appointment, long before I saw a rheumatologist, and this I think I seem to remember showed some Chondromalacia patella, and misalignment of the patella? In the last few months/weeks the pain, and cracking has been getting a lot worse. The rheumatologist said no point in scanning it, as I've now started Sulphazalizine any way, and a scan wouldn't change the treatment.

Sometimes it's very swollen, and other times not so much (typically this was the case when I saw the rheumatologist!).

In the last week the pain is much worse. Generalized pain and bad shooting pains through my knee, and it's collapsed/given way a couple of times in the last week, with the shooting pains.

I've got a GP appointment, but not until the 3rd June!

I'm not sure if an xray, or scan would make any difference, and as the rheum consultant says, it probably wouldn't affect the treatment anyway, but I'm really quite worried about the pain and knee giving way on me.

Perhaps it's just another thing to get used to! It gets hard to know what it normal and what is not, when you have pain all the time anyway!

chookgate

I'm not a doctor,and I know nothing about your particular condition, but it seems very unhelpful to me for your rheumatologist to not even look to see if there is now something new going on in your knee that his current course of treatment would not be able to help. Maybe (hope not) you've developed OA in the knee, and an xray would show that, and maybe you might need an arthroscopy or possibly partial or total knee replacement. Maybe the rheumatologist is right, but unless he looks I can't believe he can be sure. Maybe you need a doctor with a different specialism now.

Good luck with the GP, are you sure you can't get a sooner appointment? 3rd of June is a ridiculous time to wait even for a routine appointment.

kentishlady

Hi.You have my sympathy as I also have a bad knee (OA) which has joined in with my back. Your wait for Dr appointment is about the same as mine. I've just waited 3 weeks to see mine. She is the most popular dr at the surgery, also considered by many to be the best and to add to that works part-time, so it is extremely difficult to get an appointment with her. Hope you can get something sorted out soon. Beryl

stickywicket

It won't make any difference to the treatment but I do think you should mention it to the G P. It might be that physio would help and an x-ray would show if there's more going on.

lizzieuk1

V sensible advise from chookgate, it is as bit poor that your rheumy is assuming your knee pain is caused by the ?pa? (Not sure which u have) there could be a number of things causing it and some can be helped with arthroscopy etc, I would def ask for a scan to confirm what the cause is. Ask them how they can be sure its not cartilage or ligament damage both of which could be treated - the giving way aspect is v suggestive of cartilage damage!