On Jan 1, 2007 all of a sudden I started feeling very sick - I had
fatigue, nausea, anorexia, insomnia and extreme shortness of breath
(there was no wheezing, and my oxygen saturation levels were always
100%). I would also get these strange attacks in my chest where all of
a sudden all the ribs muscles would go into a spasm and it would be
hard to breath. After about a week of this I developed costochondritis.
After two months of having costochondritis, the inflammation spread to
every single other joint in my body (including the sacroiliac, jaw,
neck, the ribs joints, achille's tendons, and my spine was affected in
3 places). None of my joints ever had any swelling, however the
stiffness in my hands was so bad that I could barely hold a glass. The
pain was unbearable and seemed like it wasn't only in my joints, but
all around them too.
I've seen two rheumatologists who cannot give me a diagnosis. I've
been tested for lyme disease, rheumatoid factor, anti-CCP, ANA, ENA,
HLA-b27 - it was all negative. Even my sedimentation rate never went
over 16. Only my CRP was elevated - 24 at some point.
I have not been able to work for the past year or do anything else
really. It is only in the last two months that the systemic symptoms
went away, however the pain stilll remains. It's not in the joints
anymore but in the fibrous tissues surrounding them.
Has anyone experienced anything like this? Should I expect this to ever go away? What could this be?
Fibro is not supposed to be inflammatory in origin. My condition is clearly inflammatory as my CRP is raised and it responds well to steroids.
If your pain persists, I'd be looking at Fibro. It's possible that you have something inflammatory and Fibro as well. I'm sure you are thrilled at the prospect of having two illnesses at one time, but sometimes that's how it works. Let them do a work up for that. You didn't state your age, so I assume you are probably too young for PMR.
Yeah, I'm too young for PMR, I'm 27.
What is the workup for Fibro, other than just looking for the trigger spots which I don't have, are there any blood tests that can be done for Fibro?
Maste, I'm not qualified to diagnose you, but I wanted to welcome you and say that I hope you get to the bottom of this quickly. I know how worried you must be. Sometimes it takes quite a while to get a diagnosis, so hang in there. In the meantime, continue to post. Someone here should be able to answer any of your questions. Anything bring this on?