I've had bursitis in both my elbows.

[Nort]

Anybody else with RA experience this. My elbows were a little sore which I assumed was from the nodules my rheumy said I had on both my elbows. About mid-October, the swelling was golf ball sized on both elbows. A nurse friend said what I has was bursitis. While on vacation in early November, I went to a Dr. and had both of them drained. After getting back from vacation, I saw my rheumy and he said it was related to my RA and if it happens again, he would like to drain them and have the fluid analyzed. At the moment, the swelling my left elbow is again golf ball sized but my right elbow has no swelling.

Is this common for RA?

 

[JOJO19551]

I do not have RA but I did have bursitis, had elbows drained and received cortisone shots.  This was about 8 years ago (only diagnosed with scleroderma in 08).  I found I was setting my elbows on my desk to use my computer.  I bought a cordless keyboard which allowed me to keep my elbows off my desk and it never happened again.  Hope this helps, JoAnn

[linda]

It would be interesting to have the fluid analyzed, as your doctor said. See if he/she would be willing to check for mycoplasmas, babesia and other bugs like streps. Not that their absence would mean that you don't have an infection, they are difficult to find.

[Nort]

I was reading this week end about bursitis, on the elbow specifically. It said sometimes, the swelling is due to an infected bursa sac, which is why they want to analyze the fluid, to find out what type of infection it is and what type of antibiotic to use to treat it. 

Has anybody had this and have it treated with antibiotics? Did they use minocin? 

[awesomemb]

I have Scleroderma and had problems years ago w/ bursitis. They never got huge but they got infected. I dont think minocin would be the right pill for an infection. You might have staph or strep in there. But, you can probably take both at the same time. I say do the drainage and test the fluid for bacteria. You need to baby those elbows. No straining or lifting heavy items. Or over activity for a little while.

[Author]

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