Worried...need help diagnosing/ruling out diseases

I am healthy (outside of current illness), active 40 year old, who is fairly active, normal weight, just had a normal gen.physical and bloodwork.  In December I had bad urinary tract symptoms that cleared up with antibiotics, but then came back a week later but with severe hip pain...arthritic pain is quick onset.  The UTI symptoms slowly dropped off after another course of antibiotics while the hip pain increased and then sharp lower back pain began, then knee stiffness began and disappeared after a couple weeks, then a few weeks later broad upper back and shoulder pain began not allowing me to lie in one position in bed for more than a few minutes without vicodin.  Have buttocks/sit bone pain and mild bottom of foot pain.  I have almost no stiffness or pain in the moring...I feel better in the moring and more achy in the late afternoon to bedtime period.  My doctor says I have reduced flexibility when trying to touch my toes (I make it half way between knees and floor), but I've always been fairly unflexible in that area even going back to highschool gymnastics.  All my rheumy bloodwork came back negative early on in December 2007 (ie Sed Rate, CRP, ANA, Rheum Factor, HLA B27 negative etc) and remained the same (normal) when retaken 3 months later-last week (early March 2008).  X-rays/MRIs show mild OA in hips and SI joints, SI joints also show mild sclerosis with no inflamatory components, and "very mild degeneration" of one disc and joint in the lumbar area (don't know exact disc/joint), and no positive findings in c-spine area...I've read these radiological findings are norma for an active 40 year old.  I took Celebrex for about 3-4 weeks with no noticable benefit and then discontinued due to side effects (shortness of breath, chest weirdness).  IBuprophen/Tyelnol do not aleviate pain at all, but Lyrica ( a nerve signal blocker) dramatically reduced pain 24 hours a day.  I have some mild blurriness in my eyes with some crusting in the morning but no pink eye.  No rashes, lesions etc.  Have had an occassional mild fever (temp of 99).  So what is this?  Recap: sudden onset of severe hip, lowerback, and generalized upperback/neck arthritic-like pain following/overlapping a urinary tract infection, completely normal rheumy and gen.health bloodwork, almost unnoticable stiffness in morning (not really sure), aches get worse in evening, and completely active/healthy leading up to illness...never any arthritic pain previously, family doesn't have any chronic arthritis outside of father who suffered from chronic leg pain and mild spondylitis in old age (70's-80's).  Please help, I'm very stressed and anxious about the daily pain, reduced activeness, and possible horrible prognosis, and stress on wife...thank you very much for any help with this.

[maste]

This sounds like reactive arthritis. Since you're HLA-b27 negative it probably will not follow a chronic course. However, having said that, it may still last a very long time. You could either have bouts of this or have it ongoing for the next 2 to 3 years. Also, the fact that your ESR or CRP were never raised is a good prognositc factor....

Good luck....

[txsilver]

Your symptoms sound very similar to how I started out.  check out the spondyilitis.org site.  Even though you are HLA-b27 negative, you can still have AS or one of the other conditions in that family.