On August 17th 2001, i was a robust 36 YOA male, in fantastic shape, with basically no medical problems except high blood pressure and high cholesterol. On August 18th, every joint in my hands felt like they were sore to the touch, almost like i had completed a hard work out the day before. By the evening, it had spread to my feet and knees, lower back, wrists, elbows, almost every joint. I was in so much pain the sheets on the bed hurt. I went to my doctor the next day and he prescribed a pregnisone pack which took away the pain and swelling, but once it ran out, everything came back with a vengance. I was sent to a Rheumatologist and they ran tests for lyme, HIV, RA, sed rate, etc. everything came back negative? I was basically diagnosed as having somekind of sudden onset of arthritis, probably RA, given vioxx and pregnisone and sent on my way. I finally got on enbrel in 2002 and it worked real well but about a year ago its effectiveness wore off. I forgot to leave out that not to soon after this all happened i developed atrial fibrilation and was put on beta blockers. The AF got so bad that i had an ablation in 2005 and have been pretty much been cured since then. For about the past 6-8 months my doctor has had me on cymbalta 30 mgs, which seems to work real well with the pain. But the joint stiffness and crepidess is still there and i get break through pain even though i still take 600-1000 mgs of ibuprofen a day. I was given percocets and vicodin to take for the break thru pain, but they are poison, addicting and i was developing a very high tolerance to the drugs, which scared me straight into not taking them anymore. My question is this, i have never been really diagnosed with anything other than, "we really don't know". I was told that there are more specific tests for lyme disease and other tests that i am sure i never had that might possibly shed some light on my condition. My doctor wanted me to go up to 60 mgs of cymbalta but i felt to tired at that dose, so i came back down to 30 mgs. Any suggestions?