Joint Pain, Muscle Weakness, Fatigue, Full-Body Aches, Difficulty Concentrating

[Ideation_Is_Futile]

I am a fairly healthy eighteen-year female, with no previous diagnoses. I do have somewhat severe allergies (dogs, cats, dust, adhesive, some types of weeds, and some flowers) but those generally don't cause me any trouble.

Recently I have been having a lot of joint pain, muscle weakness, and general fatigue. I am finding it very hard to do a lot of the things I normally do, both because my body feels very weak and because I have having difficulty concentrating and staying awake. I usually sleep about eight hours a night, but as of late have been having trouble getting more than six even if I am lying in bed trying to go to sleep.

I have not been to see a doctor, as I'm not sure that this is anything more than me just being paranoid (because I am in very very good health normally, I probably am overreacting to finally not being in good health) and that nothing is actually wrong. I would say that I have the flu, because of the achiness and fatigue, but I don't have any other flu-like symptoms.

It's hard for me to say 'how much' pain I have at any one time, because I don't feel pain nearly as strongly as most people. My 'max' pain feels about the same as the pain I have heard described for smashing a finger with a hammer. That's usually only for dropping things on my feet, or falling down stairs, or the such. For anything else, I usually don't feel more than a dull ache that other people have said, when I have described it, is like the pain you'd feel after working out the day before. When I broke my arm as a child, I still went to swim team practice the next day and spent the day swimming and diving before my arm began swelling. The pain just wasn't that bad, and I didn't pay attention to it. Right now I would say my general level of pain has been near max for a while, but that may not be important because I don't really feel pain that much.

I guess I would just like to have it affirmed that this is nothing to worry about.

[reddhotte]

I have the same symptoms and signs and I am only 25 and was diagnosed with fibromyalgia 3 years ago. I agree with their comments 2. Also get much blood work as u can bcause I have problems with my vitam D also

[qwertyuiop123]

I'm a 17 year old girl. This sounds pretty much exactly like me. I'm also undiagnosed. Even the high tolerance of pain, I broke my right shoulder and didn't know it for a week or two, same with both times I broke one of my wrists. I had a negative ana which pretty much ruled out autoimmune, which kind of suprised me, as it seemed autoimmune would fit my symptoms. I realize this is an old post, but if you happen to get this response I'm really curious whether you received a diagnosis, or if you went to see a doctor.

[Soonerman]

Agree with jrmd, need to get tested for inflammation.  I would also like to add in that you might want to research or think about food allergies.  You have stated that you have severe environmental allergies, and I would be surprised if you didn't also have food allergies (like gluten, wheat, eggs...).  Some of these can cause fatigue, muscle pains and other dramatic symptoms.

[jr0926]

Whether this is anything to worry about really depends on how long this has been going on; "recently" doesn't say much. If it's only been a week or two, then I wouldn't worry much at the moment since your symptoms could be explained by a simple viral illness. However, if you've had these symptoms for months, then it's less likely that "nothing's going on."

Most of your symptoms are fairly general, however the fact that you have joint pain and that your pain is at "max" for a person with a high pain tolerance, makes me wonder if you have some kind of autoimmune condition starting up; healthy young women are at the greatest risks for these diseases, which include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, inflammatory bowel disease. I would definitely get myself off to the doctor for some simple bloodwork - ask to get some inflammatory markers (ESR, CRP) and you should be able to see if something more sinister is going on.

Unfortunately, eighteen-year-olds are famous for ignoring things until they are truly unbearable - I hope you will not let yourself get to that point! No matter what the outcome, it is better to know than not know; most autoimmune disease are very treatable, but do require intervention to prevent permanent damage.

Good luck.

Jr.