tennis elbow and hip bursitis

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mamadeesix
mamadeesix Member Posts: 83
edited 29. Jul 2018, 02:03 in Living with Arthritis archive
I have hip bursitis on my left hip, and tennis elbow on my right elbow. Although, both hips and both elbows hurt, those sides are worse and have had a dr. (before my current rheumy) tell me that is my issue.

So now I know I have RA. So.....does RA just make you more susceptible to these types of issues......or is it that the "tennis elbow" and "hip bursitis" are part of my RA?

Because they never get better. Save the one week after an injection in my hip bursa a few months ago.

I haven't ran in a year, and haven't lifted weights in 9 months. And still they never get better. I have learned which direction I can lift normal things without too much pain. But yesterday I forgot and took 2 pie plates out of the pantry with my right arm over my head, (palm down, which is a no no for me) and set that elbow back yet again.

I have been on Celebrex for a month (maybe helps, maybe not.....no great improvement anyway). And started Methotrexate only 2 weeks ago.

I guess my question is how does the overt pain of my hip and elbow issues fit in with the run of the mill other joint pain I have learned to live with? And will RA treatment eventually help this? Will meth. help if it helps my other joints? No effect from the meth. yet, good or bad.

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  • stickywicket
    stickywicket Member Posts: 27,710
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Hello again :D

    I'm pleased, for your sake, that you've opted to take the meth but, as you will know, you probably won't get full benefit for some weeks yet.

    Tennis Elbow and hip bursitis are not (to the best of my very scanty knowledge on such matters) connected with RA. Anyone can get them though we RAers are no more immune than the next person. As they're not connected, I can't see any reason why DMARDS would help unless, of course, the original diagnoses of tennis elbow and bursitis were wrong. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

    These pages might help
    https://tinyurl.com/yajtduom

    https://tinyurl.com/yawkqasl
    If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
    Steven Wright
  • mamadeesix
    mamadeesix Member Posts: 83
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    Yeah, that's what I'm wondering how to tell the difference. I have read varying things. One possibility is that it is RA in my hips and elbows.

    I have also read that those with RA are more susceptible to bursitis....so it is related in a sense.

    Either way, NSAID's should help. Maybe it'd be worse if I wasn't taking Celebrex, I don't know. But I do know it doesn't help enough to perform normal daily activities, let alone go back to any form of working out where elbows are involved.

    Whether or not DMARDS help, I guess depends, like you said on what the actual diagnose should be. I do know from an ultrasound there was fluid in my hip bursa. But my elbows have never been properly diagnosed. Just told by a chiropractor that's probably what it was, based on symptoms.

    I have a rheumy follow up in Aug. I guess maybe she can look into if further, if it doesn't improve by then. Hasn't changed much in 9 months, other than varying degrees of pain.

    Don't know if there is anything to be done anyway. Keep taking the NSAID's......and then hope that DMARDS will help eventually?
  • dibdab
    dibdab Member Posts: 1,498
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    I too have RA and have had several bouts of both tennis elbow and trochanteric bursitis.....though the GP tells me it's now called Greater Trochanteric Pain Syndrome!!! Haven't a clue whether they are related to the RA, there's a temptation to link every niggle to it. My tennis elbow eventually resolved with anti inflammatory pills and held alongside physio. The bursitis has only ever resolved after a steroid injection into the area delivered at hospital and subsequently by the gp.....though I suspect the key to success was resting for 48 hours afterwards to let the steroid sit in situ and do its work.

    It's debilitating and frustrating, you have my sympathy.

    Deb
  • mamadeesix
    mamadeesix Member Posts: 83
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    It is very tempting (because there are never clear cut answers) to blame everything on RA.

    For instance, for the last 2 days, right above my tailbone is really achy. No idea why. But then, maybe I just slept wrong. I have learned to ignore things and see if they go away. lol

    I do think it odd, though, to have tennis elbow in BOTH elbows and bursitis in BOTH hips, (going on a year now) along with all my other joint pain. It seems very tempting to blame RA.

    Then again, I don't know that it matters. Other than hoping if it is, the Methotrexate will eventually help.

    I'll let you know what my rheumy says the end of Aug.
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
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    One of the rudest things we experience is that despite already dealing with the complications of a disease other, more mundane, things will rock up because they can. Arthritis of any kind does not close the doors to other troubles, does not declare us a no-go zone.

    Illness, the possibility of illness and being ill is a fact of life. Some of us have to face it more often is all. DD
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
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