Hi Debbie,

I can totally relate to your situation. I have had problems with my right knee for 10 years. I was diagnosed with autoimmune arthritis in 1998. First they thought that it was Lupus, now I'm being told Rheumatoid Arthritis. I spent years trying different drugs, getting cortisone shots and having the fluid build up drained. Nothing helped. Last summer, my Dr. suggested physical therapy. I did the same as you. Land and water. My knee became worse rather than better. Finally becoming fed-up, I saw an orthopedic surgeon. They took x-rays in his office and told me that my knee was bone on bone. The two choices that I was given were to continue as I was, taking pain killers, Humira, prednisone, etc., or have knee replacement surgery. I was told that because of my age (48), it wasn't recommended that I have the surgery yet. They like to wait because the knee only holds up for 10-15 years. If you wait, you lower the chance of having to have a 2nd knee replacement in your 70's or later. My feeling was that I would prefer to have a knee that worked now and less or no pain, to waiting indefinitely so I wouldn't have to have another replacement in my "golden years." I decided to go ahead, so I could have some quality of life now. I have no regrets. It was not as difficult a surgery as I was lead to expect and now 3 months out, I'm walking like normal again instead of limping around with a cane and popping pain pills 3 times a day. My suggestion to you if the physical therapy is making you worse, is to stop it. See a Rheumatologist and make sure that there are not any meds that will help you. Your doc doesn't seem to be considering autoimmune. Maybe go ahead with the synvisc to see whether it will help. If nothing works, look into having the surgery sooner than later in order to improve your quality of life.
I hope that this helps. Take care and good luck.

Best wishes, Erika

Erika, thank you so much for the information. my surgeon also told me due to my age, (48) he would like to see me wait if possible, but understood i was the only one to make that decision. i am bone on bone on both knees, worse on the right. i bone spurs on all sides, and a huge growth on the back of each knee making it impossible to completely straighten them.
i am a huge believer in PT normally as it has helped with other surgeries, pain etc, but this one just seems to be making me unalbe to have the little function i use to have.
thank you again for your info and advice, i appreciate it more than you realize.
Debbie

I feel for you... after 5 years of therapy with no help.. I finally came to the conclusion that physical therapist only treat muscle pulls, muscle spasms, muscle aches.... all the above do not even begin to be any where near the JOINT pain we are experiencing... tell your therapist your not having muscle pain..... I have had the synvisc injections and did find relief for about a year, then I learned not to ride a bike or jog, walk fast, which irrates the knee.

Lorraine, thanks for your feedback. i did talk to my therapist today, and pointed out that i really did not think this was helping in any way, in fact hurting things. we argued some, but when he really watched me move, re-measured my function, etc, he finally had to admit i was worse than i was a week ago.
we agreed that while i will find an aquatic program to attend, i wont be doing any more of the weights, riding the bike, stair stepper etc things he had had me doing. to me its common sense, when bone is grating on bone, you dont make that person use it more and add weights to it!

i am very interested in hearing about your success with synvisc for that year. the only thing holding me off from surgery at this point is my job, i work with children, and i am off in the summer. i dont want to take off work during the school year if at all possible. so i am hoping the injections will get me to at least next summer.

thanks again for all your information and support

Debbie, I am so glad u had a one on one with the therapist I think more of us need to stand up and really make our point. I really miss the nice warm pool and the hot tub though,, I say it was a week or so before I really noticed the difference from the synvisc, I quit riding the bike it still bothers my knee, but otherwise doing fine, I can squat again bend down on my knee and get back up with no catch, no grinding no annoying tooth ache type pain, its not 100 % better,but thats from the OA.

NOW,, just have to give away the OA for Christmas, and I'll be back to good as new...

soo sorry it took me so long to get back with ya...