Does anyone ever feel like someone smashed their kneecaps with a sledge hammer?? That's how mine have felt for two days. Even when sitting they just ache. I have been tested for RA and tested negative and never get the swellin gin the joints or anything like people do with arthiritis. Is it normal for LD patients to have such horrific joint pain even without being diagnosed with arthiritis??
This is not just the knees, every single joint hurts, just the knees have been bad yesterday and today.
Posted by scorpiogirl (Member # 31907) on :
Yes... I have been in pain for 2.5 yrs. All my joints hurt but not always at the same time or the same location! The left knee is pretty constant but the rest of the body, it comes and goes. Some mornings I wake up and I can't close my fists b/c my joints are so swollen and painful. So I understand how you feel.
Since I've been on Invanz my pain is about 70-80% better. But my knee and feet still hurt a lot though...
Posted by JeniferM (Member # 31996) on :
I get pain under my kneecaps and around them. I've only had my knee actually swell up once and that time it swelled up like a grapefruit. But, since then it isn't hot or swollen, just feels like it hurts where the muscles connect to the bone. I guess that would be the tendons. I get this in the joints of my fingers, too. It's not quite what you mentioned, but I do get pain without the swelling.
Posted by Jason21 (Member # 16393) on :
LD causes systemic inflammation. Some people get swollen joints, while others just have pain at the joint.
If your joints are not swollen, then the problem is probably muscular. The muscles get inflamed and tight. This causes them pull on the tendons, which then causes the pain in or around the joint.
I had pain under my right kneecap for 25 years after being hit by a car while cycling. Scans showed my knee and cartilage were fine.
I came across the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook while trying to treat my LD and bart related leg problems and shin splints. The book said that pain under the kneecap is almost always from trigger points in the rectus femoris muscle about 4 inches down from the hip.
Sure enough, when I pressed on the rectus femoris muscle (where I did not have any active pain) about 4 inches down from my hip, I found a knot or spot that caused exquisite pain. I massaged the spot like the book said, and my knee pain was immediately better. It took about 2 weeks of working that spot several times a day, but the pain under my kneecap is now gone.
All I was doing was breaking up the scar tissue and adhesions that had developed due to my injury, which allowed blood to flow to the area so the muscle could heal.
Posted by JeniferM (Member # 31996) on :
Huh, that's interesting. Maybe I'll take a look at that book.
Posted by Razzle (Member # 30398) on :
One can also have nerve pain in a joint caused by Lyme...this will cause pain without swelling or redness. I have this and it travels from one joint to another.
Posted by amk33 (Member # 13206) on :
All my joints crack excessively, and hurt. I have no swelling. One of my first symptoms was knee pain. One day I could not bend my left knee, the next day my left knee was fine and I couldn't bend my right one. Now the pain is more severe in my hands and feet, and my knees rarely are involved. Weird.
Posted by DanielleMC (Member # 22997) on :
Thanks for the input everyone. sometimes it just helps to know that u are not alone and there are others that go thru the same things as you. i too think i will try that book. i just turned 30 and feel like this is what a 70 yr old should feel like.