About Karen Brawner Expertise I can answer questions regarding osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. I can also answer questions regarding other autoimmune diseases of which rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease.
Experience I have a family history of rheumatoid arthritis and I myself suffer from osteoarthritis. I also suffer from systemic sclerosis and CREST syndrome which are also autoimmune disease (rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease.)
Question Hello Karen
My mum-in-law is 90 years of age and in not bad shape (fine mind).
She has arthritis in both knees and we have been encouraging her to ask her doctor about injections... but she never gets around to it; always some excuse.
I have told her it can be very effective and some people have been pain free for the first time in years. Could you comment on this?
One complication she always throws up, is she takes Warferin, to thin her blood. She never had a stroke or anything like that, but was unwell with a fast heart beat, some years ago, and was put on it as a preventitive.
Anything positive you can say may help me to persuade her to give it a try...just one knee first maybe!
Really kind of you folks to take time out to help others... much appreaciated Gary
Answer Dear Gary, As a user of Coumadin (blood thinner just like Warferin) myself, I can tell you that she would have to go off of it for 7 days prior to getting injections in her knees for steroids.....
Also some steroid can cause problems with glucose levels in the blood and actually cause drug induced Diabetes.... You will have to actually research the TYPE of steroid that would be used before you can get an accurate picture of what it will and will not do..... If your mum-in-law has severe osteoarthritis, then steroid injections will not help much.... Also steroid injections can do damage to tissue and bones and at the age of 90, she may not even qualify as a potential patient....
