Joint Pain
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Severe joint pain may be caused by rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, infection, or a number of other diseases and injuries.
Your joints connect your bones. They provide support and allow you to move freely. When disease or injury affects your joints, it is often painful and your regular movements may be inhibited. Some causes of joint pain are very treatable, while others are much more serious. You may have injured a ligament or tendon surrounding the joint, or the cartilage, bones and/or ligaments within the joint. Pain can also be a symptom of rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis, or could be due to an infection. Gout, sprains, strains, golfer’s elbow, tennis elbow, and bursitis are all causes of joint pain.
Joint pain is very common. In fact, at least a third of all adults in the United States reported they had suffered joint pain within the past thirty days. Knee pain was the most common.
Symptoms of Joint Pain and Getting a Diagnosis for Your Joint Pain
Your joint pain could range from mildly painful to debilitatingly painful. It could last for several weeks, then subside, or it could last for months, or even years. Whether short or long-term, painful joints can significantly interfere with your day-to-day living. Depending on the cause, location and severity of your joint pain, you may experience one or more of the following:
- Warmth in the joint
- Swelling in the joint
- A joint which is tender to the touch
- Redness surrounding the joint
- Joint stiffness
- Joint weakness
- A decrease in your range of motion
- Limping
- Joint “locking”
Healthcare providers largely diagnose joint pain based on your own reporting of symptoms and severity. Small joint pain, with swelling and stiffness may point to rheumatoid arthritis, while the wrist and knee could signal gout. If gout is suspected, a uric acid test could be ordered, as well as x-rays of the affected joint.
Treatments for Joint Pain
At Seattle Pain, we understand how debilitating joint pain can be, and we will strive to help you get back to your normal life through a comprehensive pain treatment program. Our pain management specialists will meet with you and develop a customized plan that is designed to reduce your pain and get you back into your life. We use a combination of alternative and traditional treatments to relieve your joint pain, including:
- NSAIDs or prescription anti-inflammatory drugs
- For severe pain which does not respond to NSAIDs, prescription medications might be used
- Muscle relaxants
- Steroid medication injections
- Electrical nerve stimulation
Suffering from excruciating joint pain?
Contact Our Seattle Interventional Pain Management Specialists
We understand that joint pain can prevent you from living an active and full life. At Seattle Pain, our primary goal is to relieve your joint pain and improve your quality of life. We believe in treating the whole patient – and not just the injury. You do not have to live in pain.
