- Joined
- Sep 13, 2010
- Messages
- 8
Hi,
Looking for help or anyone with a similar experience.
Dxed with Crohn's Disease in 1997 at age 22. I also have PSC (Primary Sclerosing cholangitis) dxed in 2001. I've been on prednisone since my dx and can never get down to lower than 10 mg every day without flaring.
I am currently treated for CD at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philly which is a two hour drive from where I live but well worth it.
Over the past 13 years, 've had erythema nodosum, shingles, eye inflammation, blood transfusions, a collapsed lung due to an ERCP and too many hospital stays to remember.
Thankfully, the course of my disease has been very predictable. I usually have two bad flares per year, one in the fall and another the end of February beginning of March.
The symptoms I'm experiencing now however are completely new and since it's been a bit over 5 weeks that I've had them I'm becoming frustrated and somewhat anxious over what is causing them.
I woke up one morning and my left ankle was swollen to about the size of a baseball on both the inside and outside. It hurt to put pressure on it but I still had full range of motion.
Two nights later I had a fever of 101 so I decided to call my family DO the next morning.
An XRay, ultrasound and routine bloodwork have all come back normal. I've been to a podiatrist four times in the past three weeks and a nurse practitioner three times.
The pod fitted me for a walking boot and also withdrew some fluid from my joint and injected something similar to a steroid which for two days made the pain disappear but not the swelling. The fluid he withdrew came back normal.
I also had an MRI which showed significant swelling around my ankle joint and a ganglion cyst the size of a small marble which he said isn't causing the pain.
The inflammation has jumped around my foot and I've also had splotchy redness throughout which has seemed to settle in the back of my achilles tendon and on the inside of my ankle. The pain however has remained. I've been able to significantly reduce the swelling with elevation and ice.
The podiatrist is stumped, he has never seen this type of presentation before and thinks it is somehow related to my Crohn's Disease. I saw him this past Friday and at that point I was in agony, the entire foot was hot to touch and even he thought it looked worse than the Friday prior when he had done the injection. He bumped my prednisone to 60 mg 2 days, 50 mg 2 days, 40 mg 2 days, 30 mg 2 days and then back to my original dose. He told me to continue wearing the boot and to ice it as much as possible.
The family doc told me I had Cellulitis (even though I didn't have any of the symptoms) and prescribed 500 mg of Keflex twice a day for 7 days. I ended up taking the antibiotic on the advice of the podiatrist as a precaution.
I have an appt at the Rothman Clinic in Philly but it's not until the 22nd of this month.
I've spent countless hours searching for anything on the net regarding this but can't find anything that seems to fit.
If ANYONE has had a similar experience and knows what the heck is going on with my ankle, I would GREATLY appreciate your input.
Thanks for listening.
Looking for help or anyone with a similar experience.
Dxed with Crohn's Disease in 1997 at age 22. I also have PSC (Primary Sclerosing cholangitis) dxed in 2001. I've been on prednisone since my dx and can never get down to lower than 10 mg every day without flaring.
I am currently treated for CD at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philly which is a two hour drive from where I live but well worth it.
Over the past 13 years, 've had erythema nodosum, shingles, eye inflammation, blood transfusions, a collapsed lung due to an ERCP and too many hospital stays to remember.
Thankfully, the course of my disease has been very predictable. I usually have two bad flares per year, one in the fall and another the end of February beginning of March.
The symptoms I'm experiencing now however are completely new and since it's been a bit over 5 weeks that I've had them I'm becoming frustrated and somewhat anxious over what is causing them.
I woke up one morning and my left ankle was swollen to about the size of a baseball on both the inside and outside. It hurt to put pressure on it but I still had full range of motion.
Two nights later I had a fever of 101 so I decided to call my family DO the next morning.
An XRay, ultrasound and routine bloodwork have all come back normal. I've been to a podiatrist four times in the past three weeks and a nurse practitioner three times.
The pod fitted me for a walking boot and also withdrew some fluid from my joint and injected something similar to a steroid which for two days made the pain disappear but not the swelling. The fluid he withdrew came back normal.
I also had an MRI which showed significant swelling around my ankle joint and a ganglion cyst the size of a small marble which he said isn't causing the pain.
The inflammation has jumped around my foot and I've also had splotchy redness throughout which has seemed to settle in the back of my achilles tendon and on the inside of my ankle. The pain however has remained. I've been able to significantly reduce the swelling with elevation and ice.
The podiatrist is stumped, he has never seen this type of presentation before and thinks it is somehow related to my Crohn's Disease. I saw him this past Friday and at that point I was in agony, the entire foot was hot to touch and even he thought it looked worse than the Friday prior when he had done the injection. He bumped my prednisone to 60 mg 2 days, 50 mg 2 days, 40 mg 2 days, 30 mg 2 days and then back to my original dose. He told me to continue wearing the boot and to ice it as much as possible.
The family doc told me I had Cellulitis (even though I didn't have any of the symptoms) and prescribed 500 mg of Keflex twice a day for 7 days. I ended up taking the antibiotic on the advice of the podiatrist as a precaution.
I have an appt at the Rothman Clinic in Philly but it's not until the 22nd of this month.
I've spent countless hours searching for anything on the net regarding this but can't find anything that seems to fit.
If ANYONE has had a similar experience and knows what the heck is going on with my ankle, I would GREATLY appreciate your input.
Thanks for listening.
