By Paul Beckman

Maxine Sanders’ pain may ebb on occasion, but it never disappears. Since taking a hard fall when she was 13, osteoarthritis began replacing the cartilage in her hip joints with agony.

Now, almost 50 years later, the cartilage is gone. Without the natural cushion, the ends of her bones scrape against each other every time she stands up or walks across a room

“There is an extreme amount of pain,” said Sanders, an administrative assistant with the Aviation Department.

“Sometimes it gets worse, like anytime the barometric pressure changes. I can probably predict the weather better than weather forecasters.”

More than 20 million Americans wrestle with cartilage-destroying osteoarthritis. Another 2.1 million struggle with rheumatoid arthritis, which causes inflammation in the lining of the joints and leads to excruciating pain and loss of movement.

These two common versions of arthritis can be debilitating and frustrating. Although treatment often eases many symptoms, there is no cure.

Still, Sanders and other sufferers refuse to be controlled by it. They match the tenacity of the disease by pushing through the pain when they can and putting up with it when it won’t budge.

Diagnosing the pain
Before diagnosis, the onset of arthritis can be confusing and frustrating. Mary Hunter was baffled when her right hip began hurting constantly. When relief came, a similar ache began in her right knee. Then the pain jumped to the left knee. She couldn’t understand what was wrong.

“I was teased about how I was getting old,” said Hunter, an administration manager in HFD. “Oh boy, my hip hurts. I have a hitch in my get along. Then I noticed that this wasn’t funny anymore. My hip hurts! It got to the point where I was just groaning all the time, because I was in so much pain.”

While traveling, Hunter realized her mysterious collection of aches and pains was becoming unmanageable.

“Every time I tried to get on or off the van, they had to either pull me up or pull me off because it got to where my legs just wouldn’t work any more,” Hunter said. “My hands were swollen. My hand was like two hands almost.”

Hunter said the sensation that her legs were ripping and the need to hold walls to keep from falling down were clues that something serious was gripping her. An examination revealed rheumatoid arthritis.

“But I was so relieved they finally diagnosed it,” Hunter said. “I know what it is and what I need to do. So that helped.”

Doctors who suspect osteoarthritis can usually confirm the wear and tear of joints with an X-ray.

In rheumatoid arthritis, doctors look for swelling, stiffness and inflammation in the wrists and hand joints. A rheumatoid factor can also be identified through a blood test, though it alone cannot confirm that a person has rheumatoid arthritis.

According to the Arthritis Foundation, rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease, meaning the body’s immune system begins attacking healthy tissues. But what sets off the condition is still surrounded by question marks.

“Unfortunately even now the cause of rheumatoid arthritis is not known,” said Mario Lamothe, a doctor of rheumatology at the Kelsey-Seybold Clinic.

“Something seems to trigger it. There are studies that have shown that some people have certain genes that may make them susceptible to this condition. But the presence of those genes alone is not enough to trigger the disease.”

Lamothe suspects that the genetic predisposition combined with something in the environment may trigger the condition.

Continued
1 l 2 l 3 l next >>

Normal hip

Arthritic hip