hi erin
im new on this board i like u r so smart . i dont have any dx i have affected all my jonts all tests are negative . im so depressed . how u can explain i have all symptoms as RA but all tests r negative no inflammation no swelling no synovitis just pain im devastated. my ankle is already deformed
i cant walk i have pain in shoulders elbows, writst, fingers already the joints affected.
hips too, knees ( started first with the right knee than all my joints) now i have 1 year and no dx no treatment im alone with my pain.the rheum clinic rejected my paper cos my test r negative. such stupid think! tell me is possible some infection can triggered my immune system i always have candida and UTI they finded enterococcus than s. agalactae is such a mess. do u think if this infection will be treated can i avoid to become positive to not get RA?
im so afraid i think i cant handle this med for RA what i read about in this board make me cry.
erin please answer me
ps i just graduated nurse after 4 years and now i cant work im so sick such a fatality.
regards iris
Hi Iris, It's me Marius I suffer from reiter's syndrome which is a genito-urinary form of reactive arthritis. I am 25 years old male. I have it for year and a half now. Before that I have never had health issues. When I was 20 I had served in the army for 1 year, and you know, there goes only healthy people;) The term 'autoimmune disease/rheumatic disease' was only heard by me. But unfortunately nobody is ommited by these nasty diseases;( They can appear at any age gradually or suddenly. Even people living healthy life are at risk of developing rheumatic diseases. History shown many times sportsmen getting sick of RA, crohn's disease, MS or psoriasis, so the key isn't necessary a healthy living. A little is known ab out these diseases. Also every individual passes different course of rheumatic disease, and that mostly depends on his/her particular genetic makeup, some may suffer only from milds symtoms 4 life, others go into even life-time complete remission but others may suffer badly with no remissions for their entire life;( That's unfair but who said that the world is fair ;(
Well I had penis rash and itching for about one year after I passed severe infectious mononucleosis. So that what you said about the infections positively makes sense. Docs has given to me a steroid creme to apply on my penis and they always repeated that "it will go away..it will go away..." however it did not go away even more, my knee, ankle and lower back started to hurt me suddenly, started to rise fevers, eyes problems, and it was not until then that they realized that I have prostate infection after they finally performed microbiological test....Then the penis rash disappeared in 1 week after Ofloxacin + Fasygin antibiotics taken, but joint aches, eyes problems and other minor GI and urinary issues still continue to bother me until today. Yes I do have an improvement but the improvement for me comes very slowly;( Nobody has put an idea that I have RA, not only because my RF is negative but also because I have mainly 'tendons attach to the bone' pain not synovial, never had swelling and my pain is very migratory and superficial. The arthritis types that fills up these criteria are several: psoriatic arthritis (needs psoriasis), ankylosing spondilitis (needs severe constant globalized back pain), arthritis associated with inflamatory bowel disease (needs IBD) and reactive arthritis (needs a proven causative pathogen). The last type: 'reactive arthritis' means that the arthritis comes by a reaction to infection, but this does not make it non-rheumatic disease. It is also a fully blown rheumatic/AI disease. If you ask me, all types of inflamatory arthritis comes into reaction to infection. Hope the docs soon reveal this mistery. 80% of reactive arthritis sufferers carry the HLA B27 tissue antigen, which is a special human gene which predispose them to seronegative arthritis. 50% of reactive arthritis cases develops later into fully blown ankylosing spondilitis (AS) or psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and very rarely into rheumatoid arhtritis (RA). The other 50% may get cured in short or to have self-limiting mild symtoms but for long period, may be even years. That presumes that the causative infection should have been already cured. My tests have always been negative, I even have amazingly low CRP despite I may have low-grade fever meanwhile, that mostly buffles the docs in my case. When they look at my bloodworks thay say: "you are completely healthy, go home and enjoy life "... but you could understand me how healthy I do realy feel with fever and intermittent conjuctivitis flares. So now I can understand you, and everyone in this forum can understand you too. Don't listen to the docs when they say that "it's all in your head" or things like that, but continue searching the cause and the releif for your health problem (applause 4 you). I could give you what worked for me.
Yo said that you already have your ankle deformed?? That cannot happen if you haven't had swelling, you bet on! What do you mean deformed? Also, do you have tender 'spots' on the tendons or where the tendons attach to the bone (around the joins). That is a very distinguishing characteristic for all seronegative arthritis types. Other questions: When exactly they found you enterococcus? Have you been tested for chlamydia? Do you live in lyme disease epidemic region? Have you been with a new sexual partner when the first symptoms appeared?
The most interesting phenonena for me is that during the time I take antibiotics I generally get worst;(
If you are concerned about potential infections that the rehumatologist can't find you, then go to infectious diseases doc.