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Going crazy (not really) RA possibly?

I sometimes feel like I'm going crazy though lol Ok, my issue has been going on for over a year now. Long story short is... A year ago I started with really bad upper back pain (between shoulder blades and down a little) after about 2 months of this and nothing helping all "harry" broke lose. Hip pain, back pain, muscle aches and spasms everywhere. Stumbling (havent' fallen) I get vertigo (not to often) but when I get it I get it bad to the point I can't get up from sitting and it can last all day. Umm, oh yes, swollen hands/feet, red and warm to touch. Went to the PCP and he ran blood work and my Sed rate was at that point up to 50+ and Vit D was lvl 6. Other then that everything else was good. So he did give me prednisone which did help but I only had enough for a week and was back to all this again. Finally was able to see a rheumy in March (this year) and he did a very good check off everything and tons more blood work. At first he mentioned Sjogrens but when he called with the blood work results he said everything is fine. Only thing that is a bit low is B12 which was 234 (A year later the Vit D was up to 48 finally!). He was still at that point waiting on my x-rays of my feet and hands to see if he see's the RA through them since there were no signs of RA or any type of auto. disease at all in my blood work. No ciliac, no lupus nothng. Things have calmed down since it all started but I still have a lot of joint and muscle pain. and yes it is symmetrical. Both hips, both hands, both ankles/feet etc. Then I started with really bad shoulder pain ugh.. Couldn't even bend it at all 1 day, of all of this the worse is fatigue, sometimes it's so bad I sleep all day and can barely get anything done . Anyways.. in the mean time he put me on mobic which does help the joint pain. If my x-rays show up normal... what in the world could the issue be??? Any one have any ideas because he's even sounded a bit lost and I think he's wondering if I'm crazy and it's all in my head. If it weren't for my husband actually seeing the hell I've been going through I know he'd think I was nuts.

I'm 39 130lbs 5'5" (if it means anything) I also deal with daily chronic migraine/headaches.
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Avatar universal
Not sure if their the "same" or not. My pcp did try Doxycycline but it made me so sick to my stomach no matter how much I drank or ate. It was terrible :(

I haven't had any infections or anything in years so not sure? Starting to think a Neuro may be the next step depending on what my rheumy says...

Feeling like I'm falling apart and have NO idea why lol
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Avatar universal
I'm going to go way out on a limb here and suggest you investigate something called 'Reactive Arthritis," which used to be called Reiter's Syndrome.  I have been diagnosed with it, and it does not necessarily show any autoimmune flags for the laboratory.  Some of your odd symptoms sound very much like mine, like the upper back discomfort and the wandering pains in so many places--although the distribution was more asymmetrical in my case.  Reactive Arthritis can damage the heart valves, by the way, though this is not terribly common.

My disease or condition began to show up twenty days after a bad case of food poisoning and it continued to worsen in a variable manner for more than a year before I was finally diagnosed.

Here's the odd thing:  I was referred to a very bright if unconventional rheumatologist who eyeballed my case and my troublesome but not incapacitating symptoms, and prescribed a three month trial of a mild,well-known medication  occasionally used for cases like these.  I am NOT a fan of unconventional medicine, but have to admit that this treatment essentially cured the condition in a matter of a few weeks, although I have had occasional flareups.  Here's a link:

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp=ldymls&xhr=t&q=reactive+arthritis+minocycline&cp=21&qe=cmVhY3RpdmUgYXJ0aHJpdGlzIG1p&qesig=FC-5BCEcbPhCDYDPXLMbig&pkc=AFgZ2tlbElbXje4S9nRKVTOKLT3tWNowi_dh0CkR4zcj9DFyA-DNB1TV-eI1gWuofSxQvQuaZmCrdZCKz9zUnb62-xx4IxthEA&pf=p&sclient=psy&source=hp&aq=0v&aqi=&aql=&oq=reactive+arthritis+mi&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=1ef120049c3f5a29

Good luck to you.
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