33yo son diagnosed with severe diverticulitis July 09. After 3 days in hospital with no food or water, only IV he developed SEVERE swelling in one ankle & heel & swelling in one finger. Both extremely painful. At first they thought this might be a reaction to the antibiotics . They sent him home. After 4 days at home he could not walk,, heel was black and blue and he was in extreme pain. I took him to family DR.. thought it might be gout, put him on Prednisone 20mg 3x daily and Indomethacian. 50mg 2x daily. meds seemed to work for abit... A few weeks later the diverticulitis flared up again, saw surgeon, needed sugery sooner. The night before he had no food/water. When he got up morning of surgery.. both knees very swollen/painful and he could hardly walk! He had bowel resection surgery on 8/7/2009. intestines were healing fine, but joints were going from bad to worse. He had severe pain & swelling in both knees, both ankles and one wrist. After 1 week they sent him home. Saw a Rheumatology specialist 10 days post op, She took needle aspiration and ruled OUT gout.. they did lots of blood work.. have come up with nothing.
Last week once again he was almost unable to move.. went back to specialist.. who now put him on (6) 2.5mg of Methotrexate once a week and 1mg of Folic Acid daily in addition to the other 2 meds he's on. When reading the warning of the Methotrexate I became concerned, especially since no one really seems to have any idea what is his problem. Prior to being in the hospital the 1st time.. he NEVER had any joint issues.. was a fairly healthy 33yo male, not overweight.. does smoke and drink, but never really had any health issues. Having such severe diverticulits at such a young age is somewhat rare, and 3 weeks post op, those issues are doing pretty well, but the severe joint pain is getting very frustrating to him..Where do we go from here?? Who can we see??