Rheumatoid and knees

hi everyone. 

My mum has recently had a flare which has affected her right knew badly, or at least we assume that's what it is. She has been 'lucky' previously in that pain, grip etc has been largely confined to hands and arms. Friday, out of the blue, having been sitting in a chair at the hairdressers, she was unable to weight bare on her right leg and for two days now has been in a lot of pain with stiffness and unable to stand very well. To odd thing is that the pain she coma plains of is mainly at the back of her knee and not in the front bony part. Has anyone else had similar and if so, was there anything that relieved it or helped at all? Thank you.

If there is fluid m(like a water baloon) it might be a Bakers cycst, which I have had.

Vall doctor ASAP!

The fluid can be drained.

Hi Paula. Ive had three ruptured baker cysts before my knees were replaced and I had painful throbbing at the back of my knee each time. Suddenly the cysts burst and the pain eased behind my knee. However that was replaced with a very painful swelling in my calf for six weeks as the fluid leaked into the calf muscle. It swells to quite a size and looks like dvt leg.

Get it checked out ASAP. Ideally avoid a rupture.

Good luck.

Thanks so much Barbara. Will get it checked out!

Thank you Deborah for sharing. Will certainly look into it further now.

Hi Paula

Your poor mum, yes I did get that on one occasion and I thought it was strange, luckily it only lasted a day or so as mine is mainly in my hands after moving from shoulders for a couple of months, so I was diagnosed a couple of weeks ago with RA I had an injection of steroid to tie me over for 3 months then put on methotrexate as apparently it can take a while to start working properly so waiting in dread really to see what side effects I get (gulp)

Hi Shirlee and thanks for sharing your knee experience. It's so helpful to be able to compare notes for this odd and rather rotten condition! Fortunately my mum doesn't seem to have had side effects as yet fromMXT and has been on them since last October with dose increased two months ago to help enable her to get off steroids. As soon as we reduce steroids to below 5mg though everything flares again. Hope you get on well with the MXT and wishing you all the best.

Paula