When I was in my teens, I had a lot of trouble with my right knee, fragments of bone kept failing off and I had numerous keyhole surgeries to have them removed.
i was diagnosed with Osteochondritis Dissicans. I now look back and think this may have been a Charcot Joint.
When I was 16/17 I had a Saturday job at Tesco. I walked down the stairs at work and for no reason had a significant pain in my ankle. Further examination and X-Ray, I had fractured my ankle. I now suspect this was another undiagnosed Charcot Joint. One good thing from this, I was never asked to go and collect the trollies again!
In 2002, I was walking along as normal until somebody mentioned my right knee didn’t look right. It felt OK to me so I carried on. Only days later a colleague of mine at work had been to HR. I was called into HR and was told that ‘a concern had been raised about your knee, you need to get it looked at’. This is when I realised my leg was buckling at the knee and I was walking bow legged on that side.
I went to see my surgeon who was extremely concerned and immediately made me none weight bearing, asking ‘What have you done?’. Further investigations and operations and I was informed that my knee bones were like honeycomb, full of holes, no structure. A Total Knee Replacement was not an option, the only choice was an arthrodesis. This was done in 2003. My knee would never bend again. Another case of Charcot Joint?