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Courtesy of Intermountain Medical Imaging, Boise, Idaho . |
First and foremost, OSTEOARTHRIITIS (last time I use capitals) is a kind of arthritis. The osteo- prefix comes from the gk. osteon meaning bone. So, yes its arthritis in the bone, usually in a joint such as my left hip. What distinguishes osteoarthritis as one of the 100+ varieties of arthritis is the breakdown of cartilage in the joint; though I am sure this occurs in other forms as well.
The hip joint has a nice cartilage that works in ideal (which is in fact normal) conditions for most people. The picture on the left is the normal happy hip. The hip in Figure 2 is not happy. The cartilage has uneven wear with the potential, if not already happening, of bones rubbing together.
As an added bonus, osteohpytes, or bone spurs grow as protrusions from the bones at the joint. These protrusions will cause ligaments and muscles to tighten somewhat. So thus there are two sources of pain creation:
1. the rubbing or bones or the near rubbing of bones causes radiating pain into the groin, the gluteus maximus (the butt), and outer hip. I am constantly stretching to loosen my backside, my lower back, and my groin area to try and break down the tightness.
2. the osteophytes cause tightness of ligaments, loss of range of motion. Due to the pain the hip loses flexibility no matter how hard I try. This loss of flexibility compacts the tightness issues, and the pain issues by not allowing full flexing and thus tightening further.
In a nutshell, there you have it. I'll have more to say on this as time passes, but this should be a great starter to understand what it is I am dealing with.
By the way, I am a Doctor, though of education, not medicine. So what I have written is what I have learned and gleaned from the litany of great doc(tor)s I have visited.