septic arthritis

[Quovadisuk]

started having pain in left toe joint during the week that got steadily worse , hot and swelled. Went to GP on the Friday and he gave me. ?? and advised to take paracetamol .

The Friday night it got worse and started to swell more and toes started going a purple colour and EXTREMELY painful . Phoned NHS 111 and they couldn’t diagnose so got a doctor to ring me back . They got me an out of hours appointment at 10pm that night , which resulted in me having to go to hospital . The pain was really bad , so they gave me painkillers to ease it , which worked . A specialist came to look at my foot that had increased in size with a large red hot swelling on my toe joint . The diagnosis was septic arthritis , and now on heavy antibiotics and loads of blood tests . I am at home now , the pain had gone but the foot is still red .

I just wondered how common this is as I don’t see a lot mentioned about it

regards

[bpeal1]

Septic Arthritis is very different to Rheumatoid Arthritis so I’m not sure you’ll get many replies here. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition where the body’s immune system attacks joints.

[Hisue in reply to bpeal1]

Yes, septic arthritis is an infection- cured with antibiotics . (No cure for RA (remission, if you're lucky), which is a chronic autoimmune disease).

[oldtimer2]

The other possible diagnosis of a painful red toe might be gout ... my partner has just had that. Big red painful toe with redness of the the near part of the foot. It settled on colchicine.

[Quovadisuk]

I have suffered with gout but this was different as the whole foot started to swell and it couldn’t be touched . Hospital diagnosed it as septic arthritis , a virus in the bones and joints

[Nifflerluck]

I've had septic arthritis in my knee, had 9 surgeries and been on IV antibiotics for 72 days now. Spent most of the year so far in hospital yet thankfully at home now. Just keep up with the antibiotics and blood tests and I hope yours clears quickly.