I think IMHO is where this should go. Medical stuff.
Background - I woke Monday with pain in my left elbow. By Wednesday it was unbearable and I could only bend the elbow about 20 degrees. No history of problems with arthritis, or problems with elbow.
I did fall on my left shoulder badly 5 weeks ago. Did not so much as skin my elbow. I had shoulder xrays It was fine. Just very, very sore. Had xrays. A-OK but very, very sore.
Off to my doctor I went. He was concerned that it was a infected elbow joint. Sepsis. Serious stuff.
Doctor sent me to ER for x-rays/blood work. ER did not take blood but pulled 13 cc’s of fluid out of the elbow. And xrayed elbow.
Looking at lab results, WBC, fluid = 50830 (I assume that’s white blood count) Not sure if that is high. But high white blood count would indicate infection. ER Doc was not concerned. Diagnosis - Not gout or bursitis. Inflammatory arthritis. (never had arthritis, and this hit in days. Pain at 7).
Question - I am waiting on one test result - Culture Anaerobic (with out air). My question is, what would that be testing for?
(Elbow much better after rest all day Thursday. I’m on steroids for inflammation, and hydrocodone for pain)
Thanks for any insight, lab results will not be ready until Monday.
This refers to bacteria that grow best (or exclusively) in very low or no oxygen environments. Based on what you posted it sounds like an infected joint is very low on the list of likely etiologies for your shoulder pain (since you’re on anti-inflammatory medication and not antibiotics).
“WBC, fluid” means it’s the WBC of the fluid they took out of your elbow. The normal range you looked up online is the normal range for blood. You’d have to discuss the results with your doctor to find out what number is concerning for WBCs in the fluid.
Also, the purpose of a culture is not just to check for bacteria but also to determine which kind, so they can decide which antibiotic to use, because different ones work against different bacteria. But if they were really concerned for infection, like Jackmannii said, in the meantime they’d have started you on an antibiotic which works against the most common types of bacteria.
Thanks all. I don’t want to be put on anti-biotics for the hell of it. But of course ER is a busy place and being in such pain I did not ask the right questions.
But people do make mistakes, and I will be following up with the lab report about the anaerobic culture results. Not sure If I will even be contacted.
I have a theory about my elbow. As I said, I injured my shoulder 5 weeks ago. Also bruised my ribs. I could not sleep on my left side until about 2 weeks ago, and then only for a little bit.
I woke up Monday in the middle of the night laying on my left side. My elbow hurt. I thought nothing of it and rolled over. I wonder if while sleeping on my left side, my still injured shoulder ‘leaked’ fluid down into my elbow. Or is that just not possible.
I’m trying to make a connection between my shoulder injury and my elbow flare up. I really doubt this is a coincidence.
As I said earlier, after my fall nothing was found wrong with my elbow. I have never had any problems with it.
My Doc sent me to the ER and 13cc’s of fluid was taken out of my elbow. When the Doc asked me to move my elbow my bicep had a muscle spasm and I nearly fell out of the chair. The nurse put me down for a pain level of 10 with out even asking me. Once I got to ER I put the pain level at 7 (a bit more realistic I think).
I’m wondering where the 13ccs of fluid came from in my previously fine uninjured elbow. Is it possible for fluid from an injured shoulder to drain out and fill my elbow? It seems unlikely, but I have no explanation why my elbow got so critical seemingly out of nowhere. The ER doctor is pretty much shrugging his shoulders about what may have cause it “it happens”. My own Doc is the one that sent me to ER.
The elbow seems just fine now after a course of steroids.
No. Both the synovial membrane and the joint capsules are sealed. There’s no vessels connecting them between joints, and leakage of synovial fluid from a joint’s membrane would be trapped in the capsule, causing local inflammation (synovitis), not migrate to another joint looking for a place to live.
Whatever’s happening, it’s specific to the elbow. I think looking for a “smoking gun” cause is a fool’s errand. The body does stuff. Mysterious stuff. Stuff that makes doctors go “it happens”. They even have a specific word for it, although it may not be usable in this case: “idiopathic”, meaning “I dunno.”
Still, I’m glad the treatment is working. Sometimes, treating a malady is all symptom and no root cause.
Thank you gnoitall.Yeah, I got some shrugging shoulders. But was concerned with the original docs concern of joint sepsis.
It’s odd that I had such an extreme case of arthritis when I’ve never had a problem with arthirtis or ever injured the elbow. The nurse did not ask me what kind of pain I was in, she just marked it down as a 10 after I tried to bend it and nearly fell out of the chair from pain.
Occam’s Razor made me wonder about a few things.
A week later, the elbow is fine. Sucks getting old.