Arthritis anyone?

[Dana Lee]

Has anyone been told there is an arthritis - CC connection?

Back story - my right ankle is always swollen from a previous ligament surgery 5 years ago. Went to an orthopedic doctor and after x-rays he said my right ankle looks "angry" and he put me in a cast to immobilize it. Then my left knee swelled up so bad I couldn't walk or bend it because of fluid build-up. Went to a knee doc (same orthopedic place) thinking it was just was because I was over compensating from the cast on the right side. Nope, that wasn't the problem. He took 66 cc's of fluid out of my knee held it up and said, "Hmm...this is cloudy so I'm going to send it to the lab for results." Went back a week later - all the fluid was back and then some. This time he took out about 100 cc's of fluid. He said my lab results came back with a high white blood count, 1,600. I asked about Gout and he said no. He said he thinks it's because of my CC and my autoimmune system is completely out of whack right now and is attacking my left knee. I've also been sporting a low grade fever for over a month. Now I'm wondering if this is the problem with my ankle swelling? My CC has been behaving lately and thank goodness, it's hard enough to try and walk let alone have to worry about how fast I can get to a bathroom! I'm also wondering if I need to go have blood work done to check for RA?

Has anyone else been told they have arthritis related to MC? And if so, besides NSAID's that tear my stomach up, is there anything you did to control it?

[mzh]

I haven't been told it's connected but I've been a mess lately so I wouldn't be a bit surprised. Out of desperation, I tried some gabapentin to help with the pain and get some sleep. 300 mg at night works for me but it's certainly no cure. I use 1300 mg acetaminophen in the AM if needed.

[tex]

Hi Dana,

Welcome to the discussion board. Sure arthritis is associated with CC. That was one of the first associations made after the disease was first described about 35 years ago. In my case, my knees finally got so bad that I had to use not 1, but 2 canes just so I could hobble around. Early on, I found that flax seed oil (oral) and glucosamine sulfate helped a lot, but some of my finger joints were still painful and swollen, and growing crooked. That's when I figured out that gluten was causing all my other symptoms (diarrhea, migraines, bloating, aches and pains all over, etc.), and I cut gluten out of my diet. It didn't take long before I was able to retire the canes, and my arthritis has not returned. And after I fine-tuned my diet to remove all my other food sensitivities, all my other symptoms disappeared, also.

The bad news is that most arthritis damage is irreversible. By changing your diet you can prevent future damage, but the existing damage will always be there. For example, my fingers are still crooked, of course, but they are no longer swollen and tender. Here's a quote from an old medical report from 1987 that describes arthritis in CC patients (the red emphasis is mine):

Collagenous colitis is an unusual cause of chronic, watery diarrhea. To characterize this disease, we reviewed biopsy specimens and the clinical records of 17 patients (9 women and 8 men) with this diagnosis. Intermittent diarrhea with symptom-free intervals lasting years was found in 7 of the 17 patients. Two patients had incapacitating arthralgias, and nine had a mild weight loss.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3600036

Tex

[Sheila]

Hmmmm... I'm always learning something from you, Tex. My mother had extremely swollen and crooked joints in her hands called Hebenden's nodes. They are hereditary, hurt like crazy until they are fully deformed and then the pain stops. When I was taking Celebrex, the Hebenden's nodes that were growing on some finger joints stopped hurting and stopped growing. Off the Celebrex, the nodes started hurting again. It just dawned on me that I haven't had any growing nodes or pain for a long time, probably since I went GF. Only the first joints are effected so far and the deformity has stopped. Wow! I can't believe I didn't notice before now.

I have arthritis in my knees, feet and entire back and had a spinal fusion 7 years ago. Wish I'd gone GF a long, long time ago.

Sheila W

[Dana Lee]

Hi Tex,

Sheila is right on - I always learn something new from you! THANK YOU!!! GF is the way to go and I hope it will help with my knee/ankle
issues.

Dana

[brandy]

Hi Dana Lee,

Going GF eliminated my joint pain. It wasn't overnight but 15 years of joint pain gradually resolved after about 10 weeks, Brandy