A lot of people wonder if they have a similar condition to mine – a curable imbalance that’s causing all of their osteoarthritis symptoms. Many assume that their case must be different because they have OA diagnosed in so many joints. <\/p>\n
Here’s a list of my symptoms:<\/p>\n
I had tightness, soreness and extreme loss of hip range of motion in all directions. Soreness would vary from groin, side of hip, front of thigh, deep in the gluteal muscles. For the most part it didn’t hurt at rest and didn’t hurt during activity provided I didn’t try to move in ways my body didn’t want to move. I still managed to stay active. HOWEVER – I used self-treatment of tight knots in the muscles from day one and that helped keep things under control.<\/p>\n
X-rays showed degenerative changes in both hips. No details were given in the report. I later had an x-ray done by a chiropractor and (for what it’s worth – I’m not sure how reliable his skills were) he said that the degenerative changes were fairly mild and worse in my non-symptomatic hip. He was more concerned about the degenerative changes in my neck and spine.<\/p>\n
Physical examinations revealed a ‘hard end feel’ that I was told was bone hitting against bone. This was explained as being due to joint degeneration – probably cartilage loss or bone spurs. This was deemed to be a structural issue and therefore improvement in range of motion was not possible.<\/p>\n
Occasionally I’d get a tooth ache like pain deep in my buttock. That did keep me awake at night but normally it didn’t last for more than a day or two.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
This was present for the whole 8 years that I was suffering from OA. I learned to live with it and accepted it as normal. It wasn’t intense pain. But it was very restrictive.<\/p>\n
I had one short spell of a few days where I had intense, uncontrollable neck pain that required an emergency doctor. But for the most part this was more irritation than anything.<\/li>\n
My shoulders were tight and restricted long before I was diagnosed with OA. However, in 2012 – 6 years after the OA diagnoses – I developed severe shoulder pain, bone on bone impingement and virtually no pain free range of motion. It was a 10 on the pain scale when I attempted to move my shoulders – otherwise pain free. Although at night it was difficult to sleep without aggravating shoulders.<\/li>\n
At first the pain was mostly at night. I’d be kept awake every night getting at most 2 hours before having to get up and walk about. Later I had the pain 24\/7 and it became more intense. I felt it in my hip, down my thigh, my knee, my calf and sometimes my foot. In anyone of those places or all of them. It was a relentless ache that became extremely painful. Sometimes I’d spend 3 days and nights on the floor unable to sleep, move or do anything. It reached the stage where the slightest touch caused excruciating pain.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
I developed a bunion on my big toe on left foot and little toe on right foot<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
I never consulted a doctor about the other issues – I had no faith in them. I went to the doctor a couple of times when I needed pain relief drugs but mostly I managed things myself or consulted a private physiotherapist or similar. If I had gone to my GP, then based upon the diagnostic criteria for OA<\/a> and the fact that I had already been diagnosed with hip OA I would have almost certainly been diagnosed with OA in many of my joints. Yet ALL of these symptoms were a direct result of my muscle imbalance and all went away when I resolved the imbalance.<\/p>\n I was having a discussion today with a lady who shared many of my symptoms but her most painful joints were her hot, swollen fingers. She asked me how that could be connected. My initial thought was that it was unconnected. However, upon researching trigger point involvement in fingers I discovered that:<\/p>\n The trouble with having pain, numbness, tingling, stiffness, burning, or swelling in your wrists, hands, fingers, and thumbs is that it will be too quickly labeled arthritis, bursitis, tendinitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, or peripheral neuropathy. Too often, say Travell and Simons, these are mistaken diagnoses.<\/p>\n Pain Referral<\/b><\/p>\n It may surprise you to learn that these abnormal sensations rarely originate in the fingers and hands but are almost always the effects of trigger points in muscles of the neck, chest, upper back, shoulders, upper arms, and forearms. This is called \u201creferred pain.\u201d Trigger points typically send their pain elsewhere.<\/p><\/div>\n The imbalance that caused all my other symptoms certainly causes tension and trigger points in the neck, chest, upper back, shoulders and arms. I suspect that this explains why I used to get numbness and tingling in my hands at night. Painful fingers could very well be a symptom of the underlying imbalance – although it’s not a symptom I experienced.<\/p>\n It makes perfect sense that this particular type of imbalance could also result in knee pain\/wear, ankle and foot problems and back pain. I expect the exact symptoms will depend upon lifestyle and each individuals personal ‘weak spots’.<\/p>\n Don’t underestimate the problems that a seemingly harmless muscle imbalance can cause!<\/p>\n Please comment below if you have any questions relating to symptoms – for example, if you want my opinion as to whether a symptom you are having might be connected. It’s through questions that we build a clearer picture! Please help me to spread the word – I’m doing my best to help others with similar problems find a solution. <\/p>\n There’s already lots of self help information online<\/a> and more being added regularly. I’m also working on a self-help guide that will take you step by step through establishing if you too have a muscle imbalance and how to go about resolving it – it’s proving challenging explaining everything as it’s going to need lots of diagrams and video so please bear with me!<\/p>\n I’m also in contact with research centers in the hope of getting some ‘official’ help with researching this further – that’s proving VERY challenging but I’ll keep at it! If anyone has relevant contacts then please send them my way!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A lot of people wonder if they have a similar condition to mine – a curable imbalance that’s causing all of their osteoarthritis symptoms. Many assume that their case must be different because they have OA diagnosed in so many joints. Here’s my list of symptoms – all down to a curable muscle imbalance. 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