General Arthritis Q & A

I am a thirty year old woman who started having bilateral joint pain in my hips at the age of 12. After receiving several different opinions from Orthepaedic Surgeons of tendonitis, bursitis etc, going through countless hours of physical therapy, trying many pain medications, and joint injections there has been no real relief. The pain is there everyday and now there is pain bilaterally in shoulders, hands, feet, knees, sometimes elbows, neck and many other joints. The other piece to this puzzle is a hereditary immune disease. I have common variable immunodefiency involving both IGG and IGA levels. I do take 35 grams of IVIG once every four weeks. I have had various physicians run lab tests trying to diagnose Rheumatiod Arthritis. All though, all of the tests show no indication of the disease. I am at a ropes end with the severe pain that I endure through everyday. Many times not even being able to sit up, walk or have any movement whatsoever. What are my chances of having some sort of inflammatory or auto immune arthritis with labs showing everything negative? What is my next step? I do finally have an appointment with a Rheumatologist for later this month but I am afraid he will not find anything as previous history from other specialists. Any specific tests I should ask for besides an ANA, cell death rate or other Rheumatoid factors?

Is this also caused by Osteoarthritus or are you just born with it? What are the implications?

I was diagnosed with shulmans syndrome july 1996 i work for a company building MRI scanner is there any evidence that working with scanners could cause health problems in which i have got .

I am a 57 year old woman who has a high CPK level. It is 2700. Yup, 2,700. My doctors cannot pinpoint the problem and I have other blood tests that are just as wacky. I feel okay but I am very worried about these results. Is there someone I can talk to regarding this question? I recently had a stress test which showed no signs of heart problems. I have liver enzymes which are off. Many of my tests are remarkably high. I really need an expert to help me through these tests and discussing the results.

I developed a Staph infection (treatable) in my right knee around Thanksgiving, 2006. I took two rounds of oral Levequin (500mg, 2 per day), two weeks in length, seperated by one week of oral Bactrim. This stopped the Staph infection, but I now have all the symptoms of Sjogrens syndrome (very dry mouth and dry eyes). Underlying this condition, I was diagnosed with RA in Feb. 2000 and have been taking Enbrel, which has effectively arrested the progression of joint damage of RA. Is it possible the lenghty doses of Levequin and Bactrim triggered the Sjorgen syndrome symptoms? Do you think this is likely a temporary condition brought on by the antibiotics, or is it more likely a condition associated with RA? I have not yet consulted a Physician with these issues and I don’t want to have hollered “wolf” too soon if the condition is likely temporary. This all started with a recent visit to my Dentist where he detected unusual decay in the few teeth I have left. I am a 71 yr old white male.

I have Celiac’s Disease and my aunt has Polymyalgia Rhuematica and I wondered if it could be an auto-immune disease side effect, in case she might have CD also. If it is possible that a gluten free diet might help her, please inform me.