For the most part, I'm just going to do some venting here....
I've already been diagnosed with spinal OA and had surgery 2 1/2 months ago for severe lumbar stenosis. When I was first diagnosed, I never imagined how much was going on in my spine (but THANKFULLY! at least something was found on the MRI...as I'm sure probably most of you have gone through, so many times you go to doctors & you're told you're "fine", etc...)
I have some hip pains that have been slowly progressing over the past yr (though I had thought maybe it was referred pain or muscle pain due to my spinal stenosis or from walking funny). I just had an MRI done of my hips (though I didnt think it would really find anything wrong..) But lo & behold, I have arthritis there now and my right hip joint space is quite narrowed, and also have some bone spurs there. <good grief>.
The odd thing is, the joints i've had the longest problems with are my ankles. I've had terrible pain, swelling in my ankles over 17 years now (on and off). My right ankle has become deformed and recently (who knows why) the swelling went away. Now I could see and feel this weird L-shaped sharp bony ridge (like mountain shaped) on my right inner ankle bone and it's actually almost sharp. I have lost my arch over the years and have had sharp nerve pains in the top of my foot. I have gotten several orthotics over the yrs and was always just diagnosed with synovitis (when I had swelling). The orthotics didnt help and in fact, they made my feet hurt even more as I cannot put any pressure on the outside of my foot. It also hurt my arch area as my foot still hung over the orthotic. My rheumy saw my ankle 2 weeks ago without the swelling & was concerned about the L-shaped bony ridge that is now there so he sent me for an XRay of it.
All of this and my ankles gave me problems for sooo many years, I was curious to see what this newest x-ray report would have to say. Well, I cannot believe it....the report states that my right ankle is completely normal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Now, really the worst part for me is walking or putting any pressure on my foot...when I stand up, my inside ankle almost touches the floor and my foot is turned outside to the right. I cant walk with my foot straight. I never broke or fractured any bones in there (that I know of) so I know the xray wouldnt show that. But I do have very visible bony overgrowth below my ankle as well as the ridge right on the ankle bone. I cannot understand how this X-Ray shows my foot as being normal <Eye roll> . I even mentioned to the xray technician that everything is worse while standing & asked if they can take an xray in standing position..but she said that laying with the leg bent, with foot on the xray table would be the same. Even in this position, my foot is crooked but whatever, again, I'm mainly just venting. I just cant believe how the joint that caused me the most problems over the longest time....comes back as "normal" <ughhhhh>