Introduction

I joined today after reading off and on for a week now. Just had to have a place to vent where no one would say my pain was "laziness".

I have had problems with my hip for years. But in the last year or so, I have good months followed by bad months. Sometimes I wake up (when I do sleep) wanting to cry from hip, knee, and shoulder pain on the right side. Last week my joints hurt so badly that I couldn't completely close my right hand into a fist.

I sleep maybe two hours a night, four if I'm lucky. I've got hair loss at a level that brushing my hair means throwing away a wad of hair the size of a golf ball. In the last two months I've lost 16 pounds without dieting or exercising, and I've lost a lot of my sense of taste (I can taste spicy or strongly flavored foods, but things like cereal or toast are like eating cardboard.)

I made a doctor's appointment and in the office she was considerate. Wrote me a prescription for meloxicam 15mg and said it was a "starting point" since she felt my symptoms indicated either osteoarthritis, RA or fibro, with lupus or thyroid as an outside contender. They took a hip and pelvic x-ray that showed everything clear, and about six vials of blood.

I started the meloxicam prescription and it feels about like taking 2 ibuprofen. I went grocery shopping one evening and halfway through the store had to stop because of pain (this was while taking the meloxicam). That night my pain levels were elevated and I did not get any sleep at all. Last night while kneeling to bathe my daughter, I was in such pain I couldn't get up out of the floor and my 16 year old son had to lift me.

I called the doctor's office to explain and the nurse checked my bloodwork and said the rheumatoid factor had tested negative (she didn't give me the rest of the results on the phone as they require you to come into the office or wait on them in the mail), but I assume nothing alarming since what they suggested was physical therapy. I went through 12 weeks of PT two years ago that did absolutely nothing for the joint pain (and the back pain I was having also at the time ended up being my gallbladder). So the nurse suggested a referral to a hip/spine specialist. They are supposed to set that up and call back on Monday.

But on the pain issue she says that since the next step is narcotic pain relief, I have to simply deal with the meloxicam until they "prove" there's something that merits narcotic pain meds. (I went thru this during the gallbladder period where they gave me ineffective pain meds that nearly landed me in the ER.)

Edit to add - I forgot to add in the thyroid. I was diagnosed with thyroid cysts about 10 years ago and had an endo following them who recommended regular ultrasounds. They have set one up for next Friday since I hadn't had one in a few years.

I spent 24 hours of a 36 hour labor unmedicated and went through some major gallbladder attacks. I know pain levels. Right now I'm a very miserable 8 out of 10 and I'm so tired of hurting and not being able to do anything with my kids.

It's so odd that all the pain is exclusively on my right side, to me. My left side is completely pain free. I feel like the Joker from the Batman series.

Any ideas that I can start tackling from those who've gone down these roads before me? I'm just at my wit's end and if I change doctor's I want to go in armed to the teeth on info. I had to diagnose my own gallstones, after all.

Post Edited (Arkiebrat) : 9/24/2010 5:22:12 PM (GMT-6)

The doc said that if it's my thyroid, she thinks hypo based on symptoms. The goiter to me feels more enlarged lately but that's hard to judge. I have also in the last few months started having a really gross reaction to eating. If I eat more than a handful of food (say half a cup serving of anything), mucus starts just pouring down the back of my throat. Then I have to cough it up and it feels like I'm drowning. I have literally coughed so hard I threw up at times when I couldn't get it to stop fast enough. Doc would like to consider an upper GI when we get the rest settled as to what is wrong but in the meantime said to eat tiny tiny meals to try to avoid triggering it. (The type of food does not seem to matter, but the quantity.)

My mother has had Graves disease (her thyroid was irradiated completely), has fibromyalgia and RA. Her sister has RA, as does that sister's only daughter, and one of my mother's paternal great-aunts. My maternal grandmother has osteoarthritis and has had 4 hip replacements (3 right side, 1 left).

A pinched nerve hasn't been ruled out, but it would be odd for one nerve to affect hip, knee, shoulder and occasionally hand, I think. Different nerve branches, right?

Hi Arkiebrat and welcome to Healing Well's chronic pain forum. Wow, you really seem to have many things going on at one time with medical issues. Usually when that happens the drs will only tackle one thing at a time. I know it is frustrating when that happens. It happens to me all the time. My drs tell me I save up and come in with multiple problems just to make them work harder, lol. I cannot tell you what its like to go in with one problem only because it has never happened to me. I think for the thyroid situation I would ask to be referred to a endocrinologist and let them deal with that problem.

How long have you been a patient of this PCP's? Most will not rx much of anything especially if you are a new patient. One thing I can tell you is they do not hardly ever write scripts for pain medication and if one will it is usually for 10 days only if you are lucky. You see the drug seekers have ruined it for people with CP and that's why we are forced to see PM dr to get proper care. I do not know what the medication is you spoke of assuming its the generic form of something. It may well be worth your time and effort to get in to see a rhuematologist and get checked for Fibro. I think you would know enough of the symptoms of RA to know if that was going on with you since it runs in your family. Yes, people can have pain on just one side of their body it does not have to involve both sides. Granted none of us are drs here, all we can do is suggest and say this is maybe what I would do if I were in your shoes. You may want to schedule another appt with the PCP and go back and let her know this medication she gave you is ineffective. Phone calls rarely get you anything from a drs office especially pain meds. Since you are fairly new to the area of dealing with drs offices and pain medications it is really difficult to get help with pain and only going to get worse over time. But the bottom line is drs do not want to get involved with patients needing pain medications because they don't want the DEA breathing down their necks, the cost of mal-practice insurance has caused some drs to close their offices because they can't afford the premiums and again we can thank the drug seekers for this. Being under the care of a pain mgt dr is how we get the necessary pain medications to be able to have some sort of life. But even that comes with a heavy price. People look at us like we are abusers too.

Anyway, I wanted to say welcome aboard and I hope you will keep posting to let us know how you are doing. Susie

Lyme Disease is something a nurse friend wants me to ask to have them check for because he felt the symptoms seemed really close. And yes, I am from AR and back in the day we used to hike a lot. I am also allergic to insect bites (mosquito, ant, flea, tick) so I swell up and get big knots when bitten. I know I had a tick on me earlier this summer for just that reason (made my belly near my belly button where it bit me too painful to wear jeans for 2 days). I'm sure I've had others get me too that I don't remember any more.

The PCP is one I've seen before, and she did the pain med thing to me when I was having the severe gallbladder attacks. Gave me something I'd had before for c-section pain and it had felt like taking sugar pills, but forced me to try it. It didn't work (wasted that copay) and it took pain so bad I was vomiting and my spouse calling to ask if he should take me to the ER before she'd give me something else. (Ironically, what she gave me was twice the dose the surgeon gave me for post op and all I needed was half the surgeon's dose.) At that time the surgeon told me if I hadn't gotten online and put my gallbladder symptoms together when I did it would have burst on me within a few weeks because it was completely full of 1-2cm stones.

I will take notes on the mentioned meds because I've had to browbeat her before. The way the nurse said stuff it seems like they are worried about my insurance more than my treatment plan. A friend with fibro told me i also might try asking about etodolac and ultracet as a combo since that's what she takes to stay off narcotic pain meds but says she has to have both.

What really makes me want to scream is that the spouse's PCP (same office) will throw pain meds and flexiril at him at the drop of a hat, but refuse to look into why he keeps having shoulder/neck pain (took a chiro to diagnose a herniated disc). Mine seems willing to run a gauntlet of tests but not to treat the pain. I just hope the hip/spine specialist is a good one. I wish my grandmother had used one in LR. She has one she swears by in Texarkana but that is too far away.

I work full time and I'm taking 15 hours online in college this semester and it's just hard to keep up; two nights this week I got no schoolwork done because by the time I finished work, I had no energy or pain tolerance left.

Arkiebrat

I want to Weldome you to Healing Well Chronic Pain Forum, I am glad you decided to sign in and join us! No You will not be told you are lazy or anything else! We don't judge you! We all know what it is like to live with chronic pain, and most of us know what it is like to deal with Doctors who do not adequately treat you for your pain! I can assure you that when you come here to this forum, that you are never alone with your pain! We might not be able to fix you or be that much help in getting rid of your pain, but we can and will listen to you and share in your frustrations, and who knows maybe in a very small way that might also be of help to you!

You know Arkiebrat, that just because nothing showed up on the x-ray of your hip does not mean that nothing is wrong with it!. If you have problems with the cartilage in your hip an X-ray will not show that, you would need an Arthrogram and or a MRI to really show what is going on with your hip. I only can suggest that you keep pressing them for answers. I also have hip pain,and have been fighting the doctors to get it taken care of. I have had the test and I know what is wrong with it , but I need to find a doctor or surgeon that will do something to fix it! Anyway I do hope that you can get to the bottom of your hip problem and get adequate treatment for it! Just remember, you can come here and vent your frustrations anytime! We all know how frustating it can be! Your not alone any longer with your pain!

I do wish you well!
White Beard

Update! (Thanks everyone! Pain and schoolwork sidetracked me but I appreciate all the info)

Yesterday the PCP's office called asking if I could possibly manage the hip specialist today since he had a cancellation instead of waiting 3-4 weeks. So I scrammed to get my x-rays and got there this morning.

He was very kind and thorough. Went over my x-rays with me and noted an old pelvic issue that prompted him to ask if I'd ever been able to give birth without a c-section (nope!). But he agreed that my joints on x-ray were clear and suspected a possible pelvic issue at first and had me do a lot of walking and bending. When he went to manipulate the joint, he grabbed a really sore spot and I yelped.

We switched gears then because he said something that sore there was bursitis. So he prodded a bit, making more yelping happen, and decided to try a cortisone shot in the sorest area. He also said on doing the injection that he agreed with my pain scale because I didn't react to the needle stick or injection at all and most patients squirm at least. After five minutes I was able to walk around with less pain and after ten they let me go home with a followup in 4 weeks.

He told me to keep trying the meloxicam to reduce inflammation and to make sure I get the thyroid scan done because he thinks my other symptoms sound like thyroid issues (especially weight loss, hair loss, insomnia, and cold intolerance) and that thyroid disease is a cause of bursitis in non-athletes.

If I still have pain in a few days or it escalates again (I'd say it's about a 5 now, feels like I climbed a mountain one legged) to call because he'll try oral corticosteroid but wants to see if it'll heal without them.

I'm supposed to rest up, don't overtax the hip, and try ice when I can tolerate the cold.

I agree with Dani, try to get a good endocrinologist...
They'll put you thru a lot of bloodwork, just a heads up...
and if there is something they'll find it..
((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((((Hugz)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
sometimes it's a long wait for an endo, so get making that appointment now..
for sometime during your Christmas break,,,It took me two months to get into my endo, but he's good...

hey all... I spoke too soon on not hurting. A short walk thru the farmer's market (half a block) and taking my daughter through the library with frequent rest stops ramped the pain level back up to the nausea point again. Made the mistake of eating supper... never good the "second time" when it comes back up.

I took the useless meloxicam (still taking it) to see if it might at least take the edge off but no go.

I have these funny bruises on my affected hip that were really kinda disturbing Friday until the spouse realized they look like thumbprints where the hip doc was poking to try to find the most painful spot. My hip looks like an eggplant a bit right now.

Got my blood work "results" in (HAHAHA!) and it's just a card that says "Labs OK except for: Vitamin D too low - need a prescription - please call". I'm about ready to throw in the towel on my PCP because I'd like to have more info but I have to pay extra to go in and see the actual results which is ridiculous. I will call the hip doc on Monday and ask him what I should do when I can't do simple walking... some stuff I read seemed to imply I might want to try crutches or a cane.

The thyroid scan is Wednesday afternoon.

In one blessed "perk" to the whole mess - the nicer of my two bosses gave me the company office depot card and told me to go test out chairs and get a better one, plus a printer for my desk that makes copies so I'm not having to limp up and down the hall all day long.

The college stuff is frustrating because I'm taking all the courses online and I'm having such trouble concentrating that my grades are suffering.