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Extreme Joint pain, stiffness, restricted movement, swelling in joints, fatigue,

I am nineteen years old.

Recently, I've been having severe joint pain and swelling, accompanied by chronic fatigue, headaches, limited range in movement, and occasional fever and/or nausea. I also have a very hard time sleeping, and have and extremely bad, deep, non stop cough. I had been to the doctor for this around the time when it all started which was when i was graduating high-school. I was in and out of the children's hospital non stop, and numerous rounds of bloodwork had been done. I had viral meningitis probably about 6 years ago, and many extremely bad cases of strep throat. i saw a rheumotologist for several months and never got any exact answers or solutions. In feb 06, i had my tonsils removed, and since then was never really sick UNTIL this past february, where i came down with either the flu or something like that and was on the z pack for a week. SINCE that sickness, i;ve had non stop flares of pain which worsen daily, just like a couple yrs ago when i was going through this. Getting dressed or undressed is a struggle, sleeping is impossible, and the pain is constantly so bad, that i break into tears just thinking or talking about it whenever. it is making me an unhappy person because it is so bad, i'm usually extremely upbeat and energetic.  I am in extreme discomfort, and am very tired no matter how much sleep i give myself.I now live in LA where i go to school but all my family is in CT. So, dealing with this again, with no one here is just miserable and im wondering if anyone has any ideas, answers, suggestions, etc. im desperate to feel good again. This constant discomfort is getting unbearable. I'm 19 and my body feels like a 90 yr olds dying body- seriously.

Does anyone have any ideas on what this might be? Does bloodwork for diseases like Lupus and Lyme often come back negative when in fact a person has the disease? I would really appreciate some input, as the doctors seem to have no idea what's going on.
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Avatar universal
I would have him checked for celiac disease/gluten intolerance.  In addtion, your husband may be suffering from leaky gut syndrome.
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Avatar universal
I feel for you . as I have had this going on now for two years. i would make sure that you keep getting blood work done to check for arthritis and lupus. sometimes lupus takes a very long time to show up positive and sometimes it never does at all. Anyway i am suffering everyday the pain and stiffness is so bad that even my jaw hurts to move!! joint pain like crazy and nothing showing up at all!!! my last hope is a bone scan because this will show more then a x ray will if something arthritic is going on. x rays do not  show everything inside the joint   if there is damage going on.   if I were you I would also get a western blot lymes disease test done. there is also another test for lymes you should get done .     you sound just like me when you say that your body feels like its 90 years old!    its not a fun thing to suffer with everyday thats for sure.   pain can take your soul away from you I find. I myself have nothing showing up in tests and find it so hard to think that I can be this sick this much in pain and stiff like a person dying and have nothing show up still!!! what I have found out is that drs cant find everything wrong that goes on in our bodys and you could have a virus that is causing havic in your body and there are so many new ones out there my dr said that they cant detect them or have the equipment to find them in our body .  what i would do is keep getting blood work and maybe even a bone scan as well as maybe try something else like a natural path or even BODY TALK.. I have seen so many people that I know get better from this .anyway that is what i am doing at this point because I have no other choice but to look at other directions. my email is ***@**** I feel for you so much because it sounds like you are going through what I am as well.    feel free to email me if you ever need to ask questions or even talk.   also I can let you know if I find anything that works. I have been going through this for over two years now and have done Every test out there so I know lots about this type of thing .  good luck
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Avatar universal
i am finding out all these symptoms, that i also have, is i am sure an allergy to my humalog insulin.  insulin itself causes swelling, and the preservative in it called cresol can cause myalgias.  novalin has less cresol than humalog, but i believe they also make insulin without it.
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Avatar universal
FYI - My husband grew up in Oklahoma and Texas.



Becky
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Avatar universal
Sounds exactly like lyme to me.  You said your family is in CT.  Did you grow up there?  If so, even more likely to be lyme.  Have you had a western blot done by Igenex?
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Avatar universal
I would also like to know what you  have because it seems my husband has the same thing. He hurts so bad he can't do anything and less than 2 weeks ago he was fine mowing the yard, doing his usual things. This came all of a sudden with swelling hands, feet, severe pain in every joint including jaws and shoulders, hip, ankles, feet, hands, neck and limitation of movement ,,,can't raise arms up or hold things with his hands, or stoop over to put on socks, etc. He just hurts so bad. He also has some nausea and can't sleep very well due to the pain. He's seen his Internist who put him on antibiotics for an infection plus Celebrex plus blood tests showed high white cell count, high sed rate. He sent him to a Rheumatologist who took him off antibiotics, kept him on Celebrex and gave him a Steroid shot and put him on Prednisone treatment. The first day after the shot, he was almost back to normal, feeling good, the next day, symptoms started returning but not too bad, now the 2nd day after the shot, he hurts bad again and his hands are swelling up again. He had other blood tests for Hepatitis and H Pylori and maybe others I don't know much about, but we haven't gotten results on these yet. He is DIABETIC (type 1) also and has been on insulin since age 13.

The only diagnosis being put forward is possible rheumatoid arthritis, even though it's rare at age 53!! He has no family history of this. He doesn't drink or smoke (never has), so liver problem is not suspected really. He probably has some neuropathy though his doctor has never noted this specifically. Doctor said the inflammation is either one of 3 things:
1. caused by an infection
2. caused by an auto-immune response of some sort
3. caused by a crystal issue (like gout) even though gout tests were negative.

Does anyone have any idea what is wrong with my husband?? I am very worried and feel like the problem is not being found.

Thanks!
Becky
Helpful - 0
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