Knee problems

So sorry to hear about this lemond- but truly, how can anyone comment here without access to the MRI or x-rays or having manipulated the knee- and without medical knowledge???

Arthritis is indeed gradual, but an injury can trigger pain and then x-rays confirm that there are underlying arthritis.

I had a severe injury 46 years ago- and just had a full knee replacement 3 months ago, due to this. The arthritis too a very long time to become painful and to be confirmed, first by manipulation by the surgeon, then x-rays.

Bonne chance x

Thanks gran I was really just wondering if arthritis was a sudden thing or rather a gradual process. I'm a bit overwhelmed with it atm.

Arthritis does not happen overnight as granjura said. A lot depends on your job pre-retirement, lifestyle and if obese. We are all marginally over the age of 29 so everybody at our age will have a degree of arthritis, some more than others. There are many different types of arthritis but I will not bore you with that- I am assuming that you have osteoarthritis.

The main symptoms are pain and stiffness in varying degrees.

Yes I have pain and stiffness, but because it's come on so suddenly wonder if it is just an injury from the dog rather than an ongoing thing iyswim.

When you suffer an injury like that (one leg) you'll use the other leg more to compensate. Hence, whilst injured leg is healing, other one is taking the brunt. Good you're getting it checked out thoroughly, and sadly, a lot of us get some sort of arthritic pain as we get older. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed that you've just used the other leg more and you'll find you heal well soon and it will all even out again.

Haqve you had the x-rays done and seen an orthopedist? If not, best to wait and see the x-rays and what s/he says. Impossible to diagnose on t'internet- even if we were lucky enough to have a specialist here.

One thing I am learning the hard way, is for me to stop resting my left leg on my right knee. I know If I keep doing it I feel the cartilage starts to twinge quite badly.

Thanks for the replies, just waiting for results of X-rays. The joys of getting old.

I had sudden pain in my hip some months ago which I'd never had problems with before, and the physio told me that you could get 'flareups' with arthritis which then die down again, and it has now completely gone again (if only for the time being).

There is a diagnosis of post-traumatic arthritis where an injury damages the joint causing it to wear out more quickly. I had this where an accident and knee dislocation caused damage to the surface of the bones inside the joint

I seem to have developed arthritis recently in a joint where I broke a bone over 50 years ago.
Awaiting the results of an X-ray as I thought I had broken it again but GP thinks not.

Have you been offered physiotherapy? When I had a bad knee (I thought) I was referred and found it so helpful. The physio decided I had probably torn my calf muscle as well. He gave me a set of exercises to develop my leg muscles. Apparently if the leg muscles are kept strong knee pain often improves.

Not up to now trisher, maybe after the xray results.

We have self-referral here - which means you phone the physio services, they ask you questions and based on that they decide whether to give you an appointment or send exercises. This is what happened to me when I had a bad hip: they never asked if I had any back problems, although I tried to tell them, and they sent me exercises most of which would have caused more problems. Quite honestly, a Google search was more use.

Self-referral for physio? Wow the NHS is even better than I thought. Bravo.