Update: Reactive arthritis caused by bacterial infection

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Sitting here icing both knees, taking a break, before I go back out to the barn. Knee pain slowly started a few months ago on my right knee and a joint in my right foot. Over the last month the pain in my right knee escalated escalated on my MCL (medial collateral ligament). I have flat feet, so figured that had caught up with me between farm work, riding, gym leg workouts, dancing, and occasional tread mill running. Figured I stepped funny or twisted my knee. Just a few hours ago I examined both knees and realized that I have a squishy (such a great word) pocket of fluid on either side of both patellas. If I push the pocket on one side, it squishes out the opposite side.

I researched bilateral knee fluid and eventually arrived at “Reactive Arthritis”, often caused by a bacterial infection. That lead me to Polyarthritis and Reiter’s Syndrome. I already have one autoimmune disease, and reactive arthritis can be autoimmune. Well…I had a bladder infection a few months ago. A bladder infection can cause reactive arthritis. My knee pain started around the same time and it has become worse. Just last week my PCP referred me to an orthopedic surgeon. He is not in until Wednesday, will then review my referral (saw him 5? years ago) and then I can hopefully get an appointment in 3-4 weeks. Given my history, I think there might be more going on here than just over used knees or an MCL injury. I also have bilateral arthritis in the same finger joints identically on both hands. This is permanent damage and my hocks (I mean my finger joints that are effected) are enlarged and wanting to fuse. Supposedly non-RA. Tested multiple times. It is possible that this finger arthritis is from lifting too many hay bales in my lifetime. The main fingers effected on both hands coincidentally are my pinkies and forefingers. Thumbs have some interphalangeal enlargement, same as those fingers, but other thumb joints look really great.

Until this moment as I’ve been sitting here icing my knees and looking up causes of bilateral knee fluid, I had never heard of reactive arthritis. Does anyone know anything about it?

[allons-y]

I got Salmonella from ChilliMac in the Hospital cafeteria. 8 total of us OR workers got sick, Local Health Dept said Salmonella. I thought I was literally dying-called my husband to come home from work on the Space Shuttle-because I.was.dying.

I didn’t die, slowly recovered over about 2 weeks. (Note to all: If when you ask if someone ever had ‘food poisoning’, and they reply ‘not sure’ or ‘maybe’, they absolutely did not! There is no question, the word ‘poisoning’ is what you really feel.

Anyway, I recover, ready to head back to work. I wake up Monday am and my hands seem to have been replaced by baseball gloves, or balloons (Pink Floyd!) or whatever. Enormously swollen, no apparent joints. MD said Reactive Arthritis. It gradually resolved, still have some knobbiness, but full function now.

My sympathies to you, just rest the joints and wait. Bad trigger, that Salmonella.

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Oh yes. Food poisoning! I’ve had it for sure. I also thought I was going to die. I’m not sure what type of bacteria it was but it could have been salmonella. It was so long ago that I don’t remember how long it took me to recover. I just remember slowly dying by depletion of bodily fluids out of both ends for a 36 hour period and many other painful symptoms. I lived too.

You’re so funny! Baseball gloves, balloons, Pink Floyd! Sounds really painful. I’m glad that your mitts disappeared. I hope that mine is also just reactive arthritis, which will resolve to some degree.

Thanks. I’d really like to be wrong, but the symptoms and timeline make a lot of sense. Polyarthritis is autoimmune associated with an interesting (some are common and non-autoimmune) group of multiple conditions. I have 6 of the 37. Hypothyroid and hyperthyroid are listed, but not the auto immune varieties. I have Hashimotos.
https://www.jointhealthmagazine.com/polyarthritis-symptoms-causes-treatments.html

Reiter’s Syndrome is the one associated with UTI’s, salmonella conjunctivitis, and others.
http://www.umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/condition/reiter-syndrome

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Oh yes. Food poisoning! I’ve had it for sure. I also thought I was going to die. I’m not sure what type of bacteria it was but it could have been salmonella. It was so long ago that I don’t remember how long it took me to recover. I just remember slowly dying by depletion of bodily fluids out of both ends for a 36 hour period and many other painful symptoms. I lived too.

You’re so funny! Baseball gloves, balloons, Pink Floyd! Sounds really painful. I’m glad that your mitts disappeared. I hope that mine is also just reactive arthritis, which will resolve to some degree.

Thanks. I’d really like to be wrong, but the symptoms and timeline make a lot of sense. Polyarthritis is autoimmune associated with an interesting (some are common and non-autoimmune) group of multiple conditions. I have 6 of the 37. Hypothyroid and hyperthyroid are listed, but not the auto immune varieties. I have Hashimotos.
https:// www. jointhealthmagazine.com/polyarthritis-symptoms-causes-treatments. html

Reiter’s Syndrome is the one associated with UTI’s, salmonella conjunctivitis, and others.
http:/ /www. umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/condition/reiter-syndrome

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Oh yes. Food poisoning! I’ve had it for sure. I also thought I was going to die. I’m not sure what type of bacteria it was but it could have been salmonella. It was so long ago that I don’t remember how long it took me to recover. I just remember slowly dying by depletion of bodily fluids out of both ends for a 36 hour period and many other painful symptoms. I lived too.

You’re so funny! Baseball gloves, balloons, Pink Floyd! Sounds really painful. I’m glad that your mitts disappeared. I hope that mine is also just reactive arthritis, which will resolve to some degree.

Thanks. I’d really like to be wrong, but the symptoms and timeline make a lot of sense. Polyarthritis is autoimmune associated with an interesting (some are common and non-autoimmune) group of multiple conditions. I have 6 of the 37. Hypothyroid and hyperthyroid are listed, but not the auto immune varieties. I have Hashimotos.
jointhealthmagazine dot com/polyarthritis-symptoms-causes-treatments dot html

Reiter’s Syndrome is the one associated with UTI’s, salmonella conjunctivitis, and others.
umm dot edu/health/medical/altmed/condition/reiter-syndrome

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Oh yes. Food poisoning! I’ve had it for sure. I also thought I was going to die. I’m not sure what type of bacteria it was but it could have been salmonella. It was so long ago that I don’t remember how long it took me to recover. I just remember slowly dying by depletion of bodily fluids out of both ends for a 36 hour period and many other painful symptoms. I lived too.

Baseball gloves, balloons, Pink Floyd! :lol: Sounds really painful. I’m glad that your mitts disappeared. I hope that mine is also just reactive arthritis, which will resolve to some degree.

Thanks. I’d really like to be wrong, but the symptoms and timeline make a lot of sense. Polyarthritis is autoimmune associated with an interesting (some are common and non-autoimmune) group of multiple conditions. I have 5 of the 37. Hypothyroid and hyperthyroid are listed, but not the auto immune varieties. I have Hashimotos.
Jointhealthmagazine has a polyarthritis-symptoms-causes-treatments article. Couldn’t post the link.

Reiter Syndrome is the one associated with UTI’s, salmonella conjunctivitis, and others.
University of Maryland Medical Center has info on Reiter Syndrome.

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Turns out I just had a second UTI. My knees had flared up even worse. That’s the second over 3.5 months. My knee pain started up in about Feb when the first UTI started. I just finished the antibiotics for the second UTI and now my knees feel so much better, but there is still something else going on there (mcl?). I went to a urologist. She put me on a low dose of 90 days antibiotics, I’m getting a bladder ultrasound and then a cytoscopy (look inside bladder with camera), to make sure nothing else is going on there. Urologist told me that normal and regular GI activity is important for healthy bladder after I told her I’ve had a decrease in the speed of things in recent months (constipation at times). I’m so glad I mentioned that to her!

Yesterday I went to an orthopedic surgeon for my knees. I previously went there about 6 years ago when I had pain in my right knee. The surgeon back then told me that I had some reduced joint space on the right knee. The pain cleared in two months and never came back until this spring. I got new x-rays. Well, not sure how the previous surgeon arrived at me having less joint space on one knee. I do not have reduced joint space at all. Both knees look great and are identical. No arthritis. I do have soft tissue pain (mcl area), so I am getting an MRI and hope nothing major shows up there. The surgeon agreed that it’s possible that my increased pain and stiffness was related to my UTI’s, since the pain started at the same time, and has now lessened with antibiotics. My knee feels so much better. I am not even wearing the hinged knee brace I bought to try to make my knee happier.

[Magicboy]

I think that’s good news. Take care of yourself!

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@Magicboy

I think that’s good news. Take care of yourself!

Thank you! I can’t believe how much better both of my knees feel after being on antibiotics. Getting MRI on the right one tomorrow to rule out MCL tears or other soft tissue injury. It’s no longer hurting non stop like it was.

[Magicboy]

It’s quite something whem you get relief from chronic pain, isn’t it? Talk about changes in brain chemistry.