The other day I walked into the kitchen and my wife laughingly said to me, “You’re walking like Frankenstein”. I laughed back because I knew that I was like the “living dead” for many reasons but mostly because of changes in my joints. I have bursitis in both hips which radiates pain down the thigh and in the buttocks (I got two cortisone shots recently and they did nothing – but that’s another story), cartilage damage in both knees, and three surgeries on my ankles. Add to that, I could barely get out of bed and walk around this morning due to sharp pain in the same area of the right ankle that’s had two surgeries. I’ve felt that pain before which was from erosion in the heel bone causing spurs to dig into the Achilles tendon. Yep, I was walking stiffly and probably looked like a monster from a movie.
It’s a natural tendency to make adjustments due to pain or joints that aren’t working as designed. Joint changes from rheumatoid arthritis seem to be inevitable As bone and soft tissues are attacked, damaged, and eroded, the joints can no longer work as they should. Fortunately, disease modifying medications can slow down the damaging biochemical processes. In spite of being on medications, changes are still affecting my movement and activity.
When the term arthritis is mentioned, the first thing that comes to most people’s mind is probably bone damage. With the more common osteoarthritis (OA), there may be damaged cartilage causing bone to rub together. But with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the immune system attacks the body’s own tissue. The capsule surrounding the joint, called the synovium, becomes enlarged due to an increase of immune cells. Eventually an overproduction of bone eroding cells and enzymes begins to erode bone tissue and soft tissues.[i] The soft tissues that hold the joint together including tendons, ligaments, and cartilage are also damaged.[ii] [iii] When all of these tissues become affected, the entire skeletal structure designed for movement cannot work properly. Add to that stiffness caused by RA, and the result is walking like Frankenstein!
My joints used for walking are changing and the effects are becoming noticeable not just to me, but to those around me. Add to that the fact that any hope for strenuous physical activity is pretty much gone for now. My daughter wants to go snow skiing but the best I could do is drive her there and sit in the lodge drinking cocoa. The hope is that treatments can keep the process at bay long enough so I can avoid more surgeries and using assistive devices just to carry out that common, everyday task we take for granted – walking.
