You are very welcome! Sorry I forgot to mention the digestive thing, The bacteria found in my UTI was e-coli of all things, go figure! At 46 it was the first UTI I ever had and never had another after. Salmonella can cause it too. Glad you did some research, the two sites I used most were the Arthritis Foundations and the Mayo Clinic. Look forward to hearing how you make out. Take care till then.
Sue
Thanks for sharing your story and knowledge with me. Sounds like you had it bad. Hope you continue to get better. I will definetly get him to test for that when I go. I did research online and found that the infection can be in the urinary tract or also the digestive system? I will let you know how my dr. visit goes, Thanks again!
As someone who has Reactive Arthritis ( same as Reiters) I can tell you that symptoms usually present within 2 weeks of having either a UTI or STD. The disease usually effects males in your age group. I am a woman and was 46 when I got sick from a UTI, I also tested positive for the HLA-B27 gene. I had been a triathlete/runner and woke up one day and could not move a muscle or bone in my body. My sed rate was 110. It happened 2 weeks after the UTI. I never had the eye problems, it was in my toes, feet, wrists, knees, elbows, shoulders etc . I wouldn't have wished the pain on my worst enemy. It has been four years and now I also have AS ( Ankoylosing Spondylitis) I take Enbrel injections now which help some but I am still not the person I was 4 years ago. I will tell you that in 2 out of 3 people the disease can go away when the infection is gone. If you had a UTI and it cleared up that doesn't mean you don't have ReA it just means your test was done after the infection was gone. When you go to the rheumy ask him to run the test to see if you carry the HLA-B27 gene. Don't give up in your pursuit of getting answers, I sooo did not fit the profile for either of these diseases but I have them I went through 3 doc's and a ton of my own research before I had my answer. Please let me know how you make out and feel free to ask me anything. Best of luck to you.
Sue
smittygirl