Erosive inflammatory osteoarthritis (EIOA) sits in uncomfortable territory between two well-mapped diseases. It shares the mechanical wear of classical osteoarthritis but also carries the synovial inflammation more typical of rheumatoid disease.

Finding out you have a slow-growing lump near a finger, toe, hand, or foot — and hearing the word "chondroma" attached to it — tends to trigger two competing reactions at once. Relief, because "benign" is in the sentence somewhere.