Help! My mind has literally just been blown completely!!

donbastardo

Hi there, I’m 43 years old and a year ago I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Osteoarthritis in my right hip and Stage 3 in my left hip - it literally came out of nowhere - I have never had any injuries to my legs / hips prior, and I never played sport past school. Nor does arthritis run in my family.

So Doctors were baffled as to why this happened to me. But seeing as all the X-rays showed advanced Osteoarthritis , they recommended that I have a double hip replacement.

However , 2 weeks ago my left knee swelled up, and started causing me quite a lot of pain- something I’ve never really had before in my left knee, as it’s always been my right leg which has suffered most from the effects of my hip arthritis - plus again completely out of nowhere I developed acute fever and proper delirium/ hysterical crying, which was proper scary. My GP diagnosed me with a UTI, and treated it with a weeks standard course of antibiotics which didn’t really do anything much, Apart from making the fever /sickness pass. I was told that my knee swelling was a result of my limping due to my hip arthritis and to take anti inflammatories.

But my knee continued to deteriorate to the extent where it was literally the size of a melon and was so excruciatingly painful that I could no longer walk a week ago -

I had to have an emergency operation on my knee to flush it out and take samples - Based on test results and consultation / examination, now by a Rheumatologist as Opposed to an orthopaedic consultant, I was yesterday diagnosed with seronegative arthritis , and this combined with a UTI which I was unaware I had, caused acute reactive arthritis in my knee. So now I’m left in a position where treatment is now far less simple. Taking into account none of this existed in my life whatsoever less than 2 years ago, and I was just getting my head round the reality of a double hip replacement, I’m laying in hospital and I have just been told I have an incurable and potentially life changing illness. So I don’t mind saying here , that i am pretty nervous about my future-

So I was hoping there may be someone on here who may be able to either relate or even provide a bit of guidance on this as , I have been told it’s pretty rare for my age and I’ll be honest I’m not entirely sure I fully understand what I’ve got and really what this all means for me!😬

so any help would be much appreciated for a proper Day 1 Newbie!!!

Ellen

Good morning @donbastardo

You will be in a state of shock of course you will in fact I just read a post by another person also in a state of shock with their very recent sudden change in health @DP54

Here is their thread:

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/62010/just-diagnosed-with-hip-arthritis

I think it is definitely worth a read for you. One of the people replying is frogmorton who was also diagnosed with a seronegative arthritis (I think early 40's?) so her reply to DP54 might be particularly relevant to yourself.

I am also going to attach a link to some information for people newly diagnosed:

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/newly-diagnosed/

My very best wishes

Ellen.