My Story of Discovering Osteo Arthritis

The weather started getting nippy and waking up early at 5 in the morning to exercise became a challenge.  Eating the Thanksgiving dinner soon gave way to grazing through several sumptuous Christmas buffets that meant gaining several extra pounds that had to be lost post-New Year.  So here I am, with a renewed exercise fever to blast away those unwanted pounds, stopped in the middle of a beginner’s level exercise video because the lunges that I used to do could not be executed deep enough.  And what was more surprising was that unusual pain on my left knee that I never felt before.  Bothered, I went to see an orthopedic doctor immediately.  I wanted to enroll in a gym but I had to get medical clearance before signing up.

After looking at my bone scans and my bone x-ray, the doctor told me that I had the beginning of osteoarthritis.  I did not get surprised.  I had treatment for breast cancer 6 years ago (stage 2b on my left breast, had a modified radical mastectomy and 6 rounds of chemotherapy, plus maintenance medication of tamoxifen for 5 years and now on aromatase inhibitors for another 5 years) and the oncologist had warned to expect osteoporosis as a side effect of the medication.  So I thought that the osteoporosis that I was warned against by my oncologist as a side effect to the cancer medication was the same as the osteoarthritis that the orthopedic doctor was talking to me about.  WRONG!  Although they have the same prefix, osteo (from the Greek word, osteon, for bone), osteoporosis apparently meant thinning bone density leading to fractures while osteoarthritis referred to the pain and stiffness experienced in the joints of the hips, knees, lower back, spine, hands.  While my osteoporosis could have been triggered by my cancer medication, my osteoarthritis was triggered by an entirely different set of symptoms, which in my case were age, obesity and presence of bone spurs in my hips.

In other words, I had to come to terms and accept the fact that I was aging and overweight that brought about the pain and stiffness in my hips and knees that were characteristic of osteoarthritis.  Because being able to do deep squats was important to me (gardening is my favorite hobby), I asked for a management plan from the orthopedic doctor that would help bring back the range of motion that I was used to.  Warning that because there was still no known cure for arthritis, the end results I wanted could only happen after some time, I was given a program of exercises and stretches supervised by a physical therapist.

As I see it, osteoporosis and osteoarthritis are 2 different conditions and the management of one could undermine the management of the other.  While the calcium that I drink might help improve my bone density it could trigger off more bone spurs in my hips that could make my osteoarthritis worse. The exercises and stretches that I do as prescribed by my physical therapist could be an arthritis cure, it should be done with great care so as to avoid fractures.  While engaging in weight-bearing exercises like walking could improve my osteoporosis, I am temporarily not allowed to engage in walking as an exercise while my I go through my knee work-up as one of the cures for my arthritis.  I am hopeful, though, that perhaps someday, we could unearth natural arthritis cures that can improve the bone health critical in osteoporosis.