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STD - Muscles and joints
Dear Dr:
I'm the whack job that wrote to the person under the STD forum, about the joint problems. Here is a little background, not noted in the response. Four years ago had unprotected gay sex. 3 months later I got very sick, night sweats, muscle twitching all over my body, fever and skin on legs hurt to touch. I did go to the infectious desease doctor and clinic and had HIV 2 x's. and all the other standard STD tests, all negative. Soon both of my thumbs started to lock and snap, then my shoulders, knees, ankles and now my hips. Tests with the Rheumatologist shows, no synovial fluid in joints , and CK levels and Eosiphinols are out of range, on the high side. I find it a little odd, that my wife has these same joint symptoms, muscle cramps etc. We are only 47, but we feel like 80. My siblings joints don't snap, crack like mine, but my wife's do. How would my wife get the same symptoms exactly like mine, I can only think through sex. I'm just asking if anyone is familar with any STD, or virus that could be causing these joint problems. Any other tests that could be done to detect any infection, virus etc. Like a test for a parasite, trachonmis? Yes, counseling for the mental stress in trying to determine what physically is going on woud be helpful, but the physical condition worsens each week. Thanks for your help.
I'm the whack job that wrote to the person under the STD forum, about the joint problems. Here is a little background, not noted in the response. Four years ago had unprotected gay sex. 3 months later I got very sick, night sweats, muscle twitching all over my body, fever and skin on legs hurt to touch. I did go to the infectious desease doctor and clinic and had HIV 2 x's. and all the other standard STD tests, all negative. Soon both of my thumbs started to lock and snap, then my shoulders, knees, ankles and now my hips. Tests with the Rheumatologist shows, no synovial fluid in joints , and CK levels and Eosiphinols are out of range, on the high side. I find it a little odd, that my wife has these same joint symptoms, muscle cramps etc. We are only 47, but we feel like 80. My siblings joints don't snap, crack like mine, but my wife's do. How would my wife get the same symptoms exactly like mine, I can only think through sex. I'm just asking if anyone is familar with any STD, or virus that could be causing these joint problems. Any other tests that could be done to detect any infection, virus etc. Like a test for a parasite, trachonmis? Yes, counseling for the mental stress in trying to determine what physically is going on woud be helpful, but the physical condition worsens each week. Thanks for your help.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
slacker: It is not true that gonococcal arthritis usually only involves one joint. The opposite is true. Nevertheless, for several reasons it is not a potential explanation of Jim's problem.
Jim: The additional information does not change my opinion or advice. Your symptoms do not suggest any infection at all and I cannot imagine that an "unknown virus" explains them. There is no test to rule out a theoretical, unknown problem, viral or otherewise. In any case, you don't have an STD, and that is as far as advice on this forum goes. I will have no further comments.
Jim: The additional information does not change my opinion or advice. Your symptoms do not suggest any infection at all and I cannot imagine that an "unknown virus" explains them. There is no test to rule out a theoretical, unknown problem, viral or otherewise. In any case, you don't have an STD, and that is as far as advice on this forum goes. I will have no further comments.
Doctor, Thanks for your response, and I do understand where you are coming from on this, but I am at a loss. I am a pretty level headed person and if I didn't have to talk or see another doctor on this topic I would be fine with that. Key point here is that my wife's symptoms mimic mine, it's not like her joint problems are in her knees and mine are in my shoulders or feet, the mimic exactly and have progessed at the same duration. How ironic that we were both at the Chiro for lower back pain 2 days apart ? My wife never had any joint problems until 3 years ago ? Isn't that coincidental and a little suspect?
Is it possible that I got an unknown virus, (I've been told there are millions out there), that does have a degenerative affect on the joints, tendons etc, but is not among detection to the known / standard viral STD's. Isn't fibromyalgia thought to perhaps be brought on by a virus? Individually, my wife's doctor told her she may have fibromyalgia and I had a doctor tell me that I may have fibromyalgia, again, I think this is a little wierd. If this is possible, my last question would be, can my blood be tested for a virus in the blood, or is this so difficult because the known antibody needs to be known first? Can blood be tested just to see if there is a virus, unknown, but a virus ? This is my last question, thanks.
Is it possible that I got an unknown virus, (I've been told there are millions out there), that does have a degenerative affect on the joints, tendons etc, but is not among detection to the known / standard viral STD's. Isn't fibromyalgia thought to perhaps be brought on by a virus? Individually, my wife's doctor told her she may have fibromyalgia and I had a doctor tell me that I may have fibromyalgia, again, I think this is a little wierd. If this is possible, my last question would be, can my blood be tested for a virus in the blood, or is this so difficult because the known antibody needs to be known first? Can blood be tested just to see if there is a virus, unknown, but a virus ? This is my last question, thanks.
I believe what you are saying but why is Gonococcal arthritis something that is explained on just about every medical website? The only reason I know about it is because a year ago I had an unexplained joint problem in my knee and the Doctor told me it was possibly this and treated me with some Floxin and it did clear up over the course of a week and a half. I am no Doctor but this guy had some sort of join problems and so does his wife but it was just a thought. The only suspicious thing about this guy is he has multiple joints that are hurting and Gonococcal arthritis usually affects a single joint.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Apology for the comment about gonococcal arthritis. I deleted a nonsense comment from another forum user, which at first I thought was from you to me.
slacker101, you may not post rank BS. If you're going to offer medical advice, know your facts; or take it to the STD support forum. What you wrote about gonorrhea (and other bacteria) and JimZ121's symptoms was ridiculous.
slacker101, you may not post rank BS. If you're going to offer medical advice, know your facts; or take it to the STD support forum. What you wrote about gonorrhea (and other bacteria) and JimZ121's symptoms was ridiculous.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
No STD is responsible for any of this. The notion that you transmitted something that causes joint cracking to your wife is simply nonsense. And of course it can be just a coincidence, not sexually transmitted. I haven't a clue how many people in the US have joint cracking noises, but let's say it's 1% of the population. That's 3 million people. With such numbers, of course any two randomly selected people--like you and your wife--could both have it. That's all that's going on here.
Your comment below ("Do some research on Google" about arthtritis and gonorrhea) made me laugh! If you google me or otherwise search the medical literature, you will find that I am one of the national experts on that syndrome. It was the topic of my first research in STD 3 decades ago and I still write textbook chapters about it. Trust me on this: gonococcal arthritis is not the cause of your problem. Even untreated, it goes away by itself and does not cause chronic joint symptoms.
I suspect your problem is primarily psychological. If that possibility has not been raised by your health care providers, you should bring it up yourself; professional mental health care might help. I suggest it out of compassion, not criticism.
Best wishes-- HHH, MD
Your comment below ("Do some research on Google" about arthtritis and gonorrhea) made me laugh! If you google me or otherwise search the medical literature, you will find that I am one of the national experts on that syndrome. It was the topic of my first research in STD 3 decades ago and I still write textbook chapters about it. Trust me on this: gonococcal arthritis is not the cause of your problem. Even untreated, it goes away by itself and does not cause chronic joint symptoms.
I suspect your problem is primarily psychological. If that possibility has not been raised by your health care providers, you should bring it up yourself; professional mental health care might help. I suggest it out of compassion, not criticism.
Best wishes-- HHH, MD
You are reading content posted in the STDs Forum
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Millions of people are diagnosed with STDs in the U.S. each year.
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.
