do your joints pop?

[Suzanne]

My daughter has joined a running club. Yes, she feels that good! They run after school, and yesterday she did two miles. Two miles! I watched how she walked when I picked her up, and she looked fine and also said she was fine.

This morning, I asked to see her toes and feet because she has had some arthritis and osteomyelitis in them. There was a little redness on the ball of her big toe joint and I asked if hurt at all.

She said no, but when she was running yesterday she felt it ‘pop’ twice. She said it started to hurt a second, like pressure was building up, then it popped twice and felt fine after that and she kept running.

I talked to some runners who had never had this happen. I’m not worried worried because it doesn’t hurt her and even felt better after it happened, but I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts as to what might be going on.

Mom of teen daughter with Poly JIA since age 2. Current med: azithromycin 250 mg MWF.

[Maz]

@Suzanne wrote:

She said no, but when she was running yesterday she felt it ‘pop’ twice. She said it started to hurt a second, like pressure was building up, then it popped twice and felt fine after that and she kept running.

I talked to some runners who had never had this happen. I’m not worried worried because it doesn’t hurt her and even felt better after it happened, but I just wondered if anyone had any thoughts as to what might be going on.

Hi Suzanne,

My youngest is a swimmer at college level now (no rheumatic disease) and she has one knee joint that pops out on a regular basis – one reason why breast stroke isn’t her favorite stroke. She can feel it going right before it happens, but when it pops back into place, she’s fine again. She did PT for a while to try to strengthen her muscles and tendons around her knee to prevent it happening. She also has hyper-flexibility in her ankles, which is a real nuisance as she’s always spraining her ankles.

Sometimes it’s just genetic, but I have talked with other Moms on the bleachers and they have shared that their swimmers seem to have hyper-flexibility of their joints, too. Ever watch those swimmers on the deck warming up for their events and swinging their arms, horizontal to the ground, so that their hands meet in the back, without any effort whatsoever? Looks like their shoulders are going to pop right out!

I don’t know if this is what might be going on for your daughter, too, or not, but your description reminded me of my daughter’s knee, which has been an issue for her for a number of years now (she’s almost 20 now). She wears a knee brace when it troubles her and working out helps.

Have you considered your daughter’s running shoes? My hubby is a runner, has done a lot of pavement-pounding in his time, and well-fitting shoes are critical, he says. It can take a lot of trying on of different running shoes to find the one pair/make that matches his feet perfectly.

[Jan Lucinda1]

I don’t know about popping toes but it sounds like your daughter is doing well.

Jan

[Suzanne]

Thanks Maz and Jan!

She didn’t seem to describe an ‘in and out’ pop. She said it was comparable to your ears popping, that is why I was wondering about fluid or something. We’ll see how it goes today.

My husband/her father is a serious, addicted runner of many years, and has given his blessing to the shoes! But popping has him baffled, too.

I hope nothing gets messed up and she has to stop this club. She is really enjoying the rest of the girls she has met and she’s very proud of the distances she has covered. She’s also looking forward to running some races with her dad. He has taken her to a couple already, but he always worried that she hadn’t trained properly to be out there.

Mom of teen daughter with Poly JIA since age 2. Current med: azithromycin 250 mg MWF.

[BeatingRA]

Suzanne,

I’m so happy to hear that your daughter is doing so well!

I have this popping happen to me sometimes, also in my feet but I’m not a runner. When it happens, it is most often early in the day shortly after getting up in the morning. I get this feeling in the arch of my foot kind of close up to the ball of my foot but on the inside. It’s like a pressure or tight feeling that I get when I’m walking and then it pops and the pressure is relieved and it doesn’t bother me again. It doesn’t hurt at all, kind of feels good once it pops.

Theresa

[DiamondTNT]

My joints that are most affected by RA pop/crack, especially right after a flare. ???

[Suzanne]

What she described wasn’t like cracking at all, it was pretty much exactly what BeatingRA/Theresa said happens to her!

According to her, it didn’t happen yesterday. She was just as bubbly and happy when I picked her up as she always is, but my interrogation ruined it somewhat :(. As we were leaving, she ran a little to catch up with a friend and I saw her hesitate/limp slightly. I started asking about her toe, and she got mad and kept saying it was fine.

Finally, I said something must be wrong because I saw you walk funny. She said it was her ankle. Why didn’t you tell me? “Because you were asking about my TOE!” Sigh.

She said it felt good to stretch her ankle in the car and it was fine by the time we got home. I don’t feel any swelling. Today is dance, so I get to see her action there and try to figure out what, if anything, is going on. The toe and ankle are on opposite feet, so she could have made her ankle sore by protecting the toe maybe. She ran a mile and a half, so she’s taking more of a pounding than just the playground or PE.

Mom of teen daughter with Poly JIA since age 2. Current med: azithromycin 250 mg MWF.

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