Frustrated waiting for a diagnoses...

A little background first;

I'm almost 38, female, have 3 kids, and my grandmother was diagnosed (back in the day) with Fibromyalgia as well as exzema (maybe it was actually PA?), and my grandfather suffers from gout and Parkinson's (parents seem to be somewhat healthy without any specific issues).

I went to the doctor (as a new patient due to a move) three weeks ago for a follow-up appt. for a swollen gland.  The Urgent Care doc that saw me for that gave me the mother of all steroids (can't remember the name of it now) and while on it, I had two!! great, pain free days with fabulous sleep.  Anyway, back to the follow-up appt.  I started mentioning some of the pain I have been having for months (I'm realizing now after research that some of this has been going on for 10+ years and I just wrote it off as something like "Oh, I probably just slept wrong) and he started looking at my back and hips.  He told me that he could see the swelling and feel the spasms...huh? go figure.  He said he was thinking it might be arthritis (which I had in the back of my mind) and ordered x-rays and blood work and gave me scrip. for Naproxen.  The results of the x-rays say that I have arthritis in my neck and lower back (all the places x-rayed), but the blood work, which I was negligent in noting what tests were being done on) came back fine except the rh factor because the lab didn't do it!  It was a miscommunication somewhere but that's besides the point, supposedly it's going to be ran-I haven't been told that I have to go back in....All I've been told (all over the phone) is that I have arthritis (still waiting for a specific).  No "come back in and we'll talk about the various types, what your options are, referring to a rhuematist..." nothing, just take this and if it doesn't help, come back in and we'll give you something else.  Now, this is the nurse calling, not the doc or pa who the appt. was with and who I feel took adequate time in listening and examining etc... I'm going nuts not knowing what I have and what I should be doing about it!!

My questions have to do with the pain and types of arthritis out there.  After reading about the many types of arthritis out there, it seems like I have symptoms of at a minimum of 3...can you have more than one variety of arthritis?  Also, I have a recurring "rash" on the T-zone of my face that peels incessantly, occassionally burns, and then goes away.  I'm not sure if this is stress or a symptom of PA.  I didn't bring it up to the doc at my appt. because it wasn't flaring up at the time, but now it is and I've been trying to educate myself (or more accurately put; scaring the crap out of myself reading on the internet) and I'm thinking it fits with all the rest of this stuff going on...

I could give you a list of the kinds of pain that I experience in all the various places of my body (because it's different depending on where the epicenter of the pain is), but seriously, the list would be so long and this post is already so lengthy I'm afraid no one will read it! LOL

Anyone have some clue as to what type of arthritis I might have, and advice on what I can/should do while I'm waiting?

Since my gp's office still hasn't called me back about the blood test or returned my phone call from 3 days ago, I went ahead and made an appt. with a rheumy (I don't need a referral w/our insurance-which is nice!) for the 29th of this month.  Only a week and a half away versus middle of October and November for some other docs and locations! 

Good luck Marshal on your situation as well, keep me posted and I'll do the same.