# Crepitus with and without pain

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crepitus-with-and-without-pain/938388>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 22, 2021, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crepitus-with-and-without-pain/938388 "2021-03-22T00:25:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2021, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crepitus-with-and-without-pain/938388/1 "2021-03-22T00:25:42Z")

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I have bad arthritis in my left hip, it is essentially a pile of rubble. I’m working my way towards replacement.

In the meantime, I am grappling with pain of several types. I am curious about the phenomenon I’m experiencing where I always have some degree of crepitus (the audible crunching and crackling of my joints) but most of the timr, while I can feel the sensation that goes with it it’s not particularly uncomfortable.

However other times it’s just about crippling: I can be walking with my cane as delicately and gently and carefully as I possibly know how, and crack, it feels like somebody hit me right where it crackles, which it does from hip to knee. It is a shocking sort of pain and makes me scream. It is, weirdly, the same fundamental sensation as the non painful sort, just painful…

Any notion of why on Wednesday it’s horribly painful and on Tuesday it’s not?

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**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2021, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crepitus-with-and-without-pain/938388/2 "2021-03-22T03:16:40Z")

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Because those bone fragments are always shifting around, and may hit a nerve one day but not the next?

(OUCH!)

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**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2021, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crepitus-with-and-without-pain/938388/3 "2021-03-22T07:54:05Z")

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Excellent avatar/OP.

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**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2021, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crepitus-with-and-without-pain/938388/4 "2021-03-22T12:12:51Z")

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Friend of mine, Disney animator, did it for me from a photo. Of me.