More Diagnoses

Last month I began having terrible pain in my left knee, I didn't do anything to injure my knee. My knees had started to hurt for a few months but the pain was increasing and had gotten much worse when going down stairs. I mentioned this to my doctor at my next appointment, so the doctor ordered X-rays for both knees. The X-ray showed my left patella (kneecap) was not centered. My kneecaps have always easily moved around due to my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. After looking at the X-rays the doctor ordered a MRI of both knees. I got these results back on Friday.

Both of my knees hurt, they have always hurt, it just the left knee had got so bad I mentioned it to the doctor. The results indicated that my left knee has a partially ruptured Baker's cyst. On my right knee there is another Baker's cyst, along with quadricep tendinopathy, and edema anterior to patella and patellar tendon. Baker's cysts most often occur in patients ages 55-70. My doctor thinks the cyst are likely caused from arthritis of the knee. I am going to get injections once a week for three weeks. I hope to get some relief from these injections. Another option is surgery, I would not want to have surgery on both of my knees. The quadricep tendinopathy I am thinking is a result of the EDS, again I have not done anything to injure myself and trust me it's not from over use.


I mentioned in a previous post I was diagnosed with osteopenia at the end of Janurary. I found this out when I went to have Invasive Cervical Traction(ICT) at TCI. During my ICT procedure I was told that my occipitoatlantal joint, the joint that allows the head to rotate over the neck is not correctly positioned. Dr. Milhorat told me to think of it as a ball joint, thats not seated correctly (like it is gliding out of place). During ICT it would be properly positioned but afterwards it would glide back into the misaligned position. I can't ever recall having that serious of a impact on my head to "dislocate" it except for one incident. The summer of 2006 I was putting Connor in his car seat and I hit my head very hard on the door frame and almost blacked out. Soon after this incident are when all of my Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome(POTS) symptoms started surfacing.

Recently my friend asked me to tell her everything I have been diagnosed with again. I do not talk about my health problems very much. I try not to complain to my friends when I am in pain. When we do get together I just want to enjoy our time together and try to take some time off from all of these health problems. I am going to list my diagnoses and MRI findings here with links.

Ehlers Danlos Syndrome Classic Type (Beighton score 7)
Chiari 8mm
Syringomyelia T-3-T12
Retroflexed Odontoid pannus
Cranio-cervical instabilty
Basilar Invagination
Occipitoatlantal joint instability
Herniated Disks T-7-T-8
Scattered Schmorl's Nodes
Thoracic and Lumbar hemangioma
decreased CSF flow
Straightening of the cervical lordosis
Mild dextroscoliosis of the lumbar spine
Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome
Brainstem elongation
Baker's cysts
quadricep tendinopathy
Osteopenia
Tethered Cord: surgery June 19, 2007

I am sure I could add more to this list since I have pain in other parts of my body. Right now I am thinking anything I get scanned will result in a diagnosis of something.