Question
My joints are inflamed and no one know why. My GP is sending me now to a doctor of internal medicine to see why my joints are inflamed. I am also on a waiting list for a rheumatologist. Can you tell me what link is there with inflamed joint and internal medicine. What things are they trying to find out or elimated. I am concerned about cancer because my father had cancer last year. Is there a link with cancer.
Answer
The nature of your question suggests that you are not in the United States. For the U.S. readers, in other countries internal medicine physicians are consultants and not primary care physicians as they are in the U.S. Occasionally, an inflammatory arthritis can be symptoms of other non-rheumatic disease such as infections, cancer or thyroid disease. But overall, this is rare. I think your GP is stalling for time.
