MS Symptoms May Aggravate Osteoarthritis

Although osteoarthritis (OA) is generally considered to be a “wear and tear” condition affecting older adults, it can also affect individuals in their 40s and 50s. I was first diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis in my early 40s, several years after being diagnosed with MS in my mid-30s. My case of OA is tricompartmental, meaning that it affects each of three joint areas where the thigh bone and lower leg come together and behind the kneecap. Eventually I will need total knee replacement on both my left and right knees.

Do MS symptoms lead to osteoarthritis?

One of the more complex risk factors for knee OA is muscle weakness, particularly in the quadriceps. MS can be associated with weak thigh muscles. Researchers examining potential associations between MS and osteoarthritis hypothesized that the knee joint in people with MS might be more greatly affected due to problems with balance and muscle weakness and may result in earlier joint degeneration.

To test this theory, researchers used ultrasound to investigate whether there is a correlation between the breakdown of femoral cartilage — the cartilage that covers the end of the thigh bone — and MS-related disease parameters.

Read this post in its entirety:
Are Multiple Sclerosis and Osteoarthritis Connected?

Standing, Sitting, Hovering

Some of my piano students have become advanced and study music which is appropriately challenging.  This leads to songs and Sonatas which are several pages long.

During lessons, I sit to the left of the piano student.  When necessary I will turn the page for the performer during lessons so as to help avoid that ingrained pause which accompanies the solo practice at home (when you don't have a personal page turner at the ready).

There have been times when this was actually a challenging task.  For quite some time, my knees were loud, creaky joints which did all sorts of popping, crackling, and moaning.  After the steroid injection in October for the Spurs which were A Janglin' and the inflammation which made stairs impossible, my knees have been happy.

It was just about three years ago that I could hardly rise from a seated position.  I had to push off of chair arms and seat cushions while also pulling on the coffee table or piano box.  My legs were becoming annoyingly unresponsive to the "stand now!  rise up!" mental instructions.

MS was to blame for the breakdown in nerve-muscle communication.  However, it was thrilling on my 5th day of Solumedrol when I could get up out of a chair without having to shift most of my weight over my feet and walk my hands up my legs.  This was first time I had rejoined the MS party (meaning I was finally breaking down the denial that I was in a relapse) since I had started blogging.  I also had new cervical lesions to go with the wimpy legs.

So why is this trip down memory lane happening right now?

I realized on Monday that I stood up from my teaching chair rather quickly and strongly to turn a page of music.  I didn't pull on the piano.  I didn't replant my feet and think about pushing into the ground.  I didn't push the seat of the chair with one hand.  I didn't even push off of the piano bench nearby.

I simply stood! 

Now how cool is that?!  It was one of those moments where you appreciate something which may have been there for a little while but you just hadn't noticed.

I tested it out again just now, standing up from the sofa (which is a bit lower and squishier than my teaching chairs in the studio).  I stood again without much trouble at all.  The only noticeable annoyance is the crackling noise I get when I sit back down.  The mild osteoarthritis in my knees doesn't want to stay quiet.  However, those knees are quiet on the way up which is still very cool.

Now, it's not like I haven't stood for three years.  It has just been an ever-present weakness.  However, with this newly-noticed ability, I have no excuse to not exercise those thighs and butt by slowing standing and sitting.  I can do the "public bathroom hover" which we women learned from our mothers so many years ago.

I think I gotta check it out again.  Yep, those legs are working.  Now I can't get too crazy cause once I'm up I'm still a bit wavering with the balance.  Still no standing with the eyes closed for me.  No sirree, I'm not feeling that ambitious.  :)

Spurs, they are a janglin'

I've got a new diagnosis.  No, it's not yet another autoimmune disease.  But some of the symptoms I was experiencing, I had thought were caused by rheumatoid arthritis.

But, alas, it is not so.

Spurs!!

Bone Spurs, that is.

For quite some time, I've had that grinding, crackling noise in my knees when I sit (wasn't all the time, though).  My understanding was that this is extremely common and called crepitus.  I remember my yoga teacher (years ago) saying that it was nothing to be concerned about.  So I ignored the noise.

At various moments over the last several years (shortly after RA was diagnosed), I've wondered if I were developing RA in my knees.  I would feel a full sensation and the knees seem to be swollen, especially my right one.  But we never really looked any further.

Last month, I was climbing up and down a ladder many, many times when prepping and painting the music studio.  (I still need to take photos and post them.  I just got the newly-framed pictures back this week....so soon.)  I know that I put a lot of pressure on my knees, strained them, twisted them, abused them.

Since then, my knees have been hurting, especially my right knee.  It's the one which has felt wrenched.  I would take it easy, taking stairs one at a time to avoid the shooting pain, and hope that healing would occur.  The pain simply became outrageous enough that I called my doctor.

X-rays were taken of my knee and I received a referral to an orthopedic doctor in return.  Bottom line is that I have bone spurs under my kneecap.  I believe that he said the official (long) name of what I have is chondromalacia patella.  (However, I didn't write it down and have just tried to find something which sounds vaguely familiar and fits my symptoms.  I think that's what he said.)

The doctor also used another term which I didn't like to hear.  He mentioned osteoarthritis.  Dang it, early OA of the knee(s). 


The good news was that I was the recipient of a wonderful steroid injection in my knee.  The pain has diminished.  The crackling has diminished.  The joint moves much more smoothly now.   Now I kinda wish that my left knee had received the special treatment too.  It is still stiff and crackly (although not nearly as bad as my right knee had gotten). 

The advice of of the orthopedic doctor?  Ride that stationary bike 30 minutes, 3 times per week.  Best thing I could do for my quality of life as an MS patient.  His advice echoes that of my rheumatologist too.  Now, I really, REALLY, need to move that bike into a location where it is easy to use.