Osteomyelitis?

My husband was injured at work approx. a year ago and was treated for a staph infection that was caused by a dirty knife that he barely nipped him self in the knee with. Doctors did a nuclear bone scan and recommened a MRI to rule out possibililiy of OSTEOMYELITIS. The MRI was never referred out and coincidently my husband has now been diagnosed with rhematoid arthritis and is on several meds. It appears to me that the condition is worsening even with the meds. I would like anyones opinion if it is possible he was misdianosed with Rhematoid arthrits and if it could actually be realted to that injury at work and what I should do to pursue this. He is in constant pain and I just want to have the condition treated before its too late.

If this is what he has would it spread to other bones?

all disease modifying antirheumatoid drugs may take some time to act maybe even months because it is a chronic disorder
until then religiously take medicines ...
and if something unusual occurs report to doc
pain relieving drugs should be taken to relieve pain in this period
rheumatoid disorder has a characteristic way of affecting bones in body
* Morning stiffness of >1 hour most mornings for at least 6 weeks.
* Arthritis joint swelling+pain and soft-tissue swelling of >3 of 14 joints/joint groups
* Arthritis of hand joints
* Symmetric (both limbs together)arthritis
* Subcutaneous (below skin)nodules in specific places
* Rheumatoid factor a blood test at a level above the 95th percentile
* Radiological x ray changes suggestive of joint erosion

At least four criteria have to be met for classification as RA.
. one of the criteria is the presence of bone erosion on X-Ray. Prevention of bone erosion is one of the main aims of treatment because it is generally irreversible. To wait until all of the ACR criteria for rheumatoid arthritis are met may sometimes result in a worse outcome for the patient. Most patients and rheumatologists would agree that it would be better to treat the patient as early as possible and prevent bone erosion from occurring, even if this means treating patients who don't fulfill the ACR criteria.

so ur doc is diagnosing based on these ....and aim is to prevent crippling deformities and bone erosions
very unlikely that a osteomyelitis is not differentiated from ra
go with ur doc

can you give photos of ur husbands hands in a online site like flickr?no face just hands and joints affected will do

osteomyelitis is an infection of the bone, i had this in my foot, it turns the bones to powder and i have no bone in my little toe because of this, maybe his knee bones are infected, the doc told me there is no way to see the infection, the mri, xray should tell the docs if the joint is still intact, the doc also told me once you get osteomyelitis you can never get rid of it unless you have that bone removed, so its something you have to watch forever, i get flu like symptoms when my infection acts up, it also swells, gets red and is hot to the touch, go to infectious disease doc and see what he reccomends

No, its not osteomyelitis.
Osteomyelitis is an infection. You said this was a YEAR ago.
Infections spread MUCH quicker than a year.

In addition, he'd have other symptoms associated with infection, such as a fever.

It seems like its just a really unlucky coincidence.

Perhaps you should speak to the doctor and ask them how long you should try these meds, since they're not working. They MAY be able to prescribe some different meds which might work.

Osteomyelitis can appear as bone pain that seems to improve and then worsens. Bone scans and MRIs are the most effective way to diagnose osteomyelitis. You didn't say what the bone scan results were. With osteomyelitis, in addition to pain, there will be swelling and redness surrounding the site of the infection. There will also be fever. I sincerely doubt that after a year, this is osteomyelitis, however he should speak to his prescribing physician about his continued and worsening symptoms.