bone scan, CT, MRI, xrays..no answers

Do your scans indicate any arthritis? Yes, there are tests for arthritis. I would see a rheumatologist next. There are many types of arthritis, find a specialist with lots of experience.

Yes, its important to keep your weight under control. Exercise is a factor but it is diet that controls it. Good luck. What is your job?

First, I wanted to include this info because a lot of people get confused between a bone density test, and a nuclear bone scan:
A bone scan is a test that can find damage to the bones, find cancer that has spread to the bones, and watch problems such as infection and trauma to the bones.

During a bone scan, a radioactive substance called a tracer is injected into a vein in your arm. The tracer travels through your bloodstream and into your bones. Then a special camera takes pictures of the tracer in your bones.

Areas that absorb little or no amount of tracer appear as dark or "cold" spots. This could show a lack of blood supply to the bone or certain types of cancer.

Areas of fast bone growth or repair absorb more tracer and show up as bright or "hot" spots in the pictures. Hot spots may point to problems such as arthritis, a tumor, a fracture, or an infection.

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With the dark areas showing up on your scan, you can see why you were referred to an oncologist. Yay for no cancer.

I was diagnosed with JRA as a young kid, so my scan lights up like a Christmas tree. With a joint damaging disease, the body tries to heal the damage with new bone growth. New growth will absorb more of the tracer, making it light up. I also had a dark area around my knee that was the result of AVN. That's an area of dead bone(my Dr equates it to a heart attack in the bone) due to long term steroids. You can have both glowing spots, and dark spots on the same scan.

A nuclear scan is actually pretty expensive and can sometimes take a lot of persuasion to get insurance on board. With that in mind, it does seem like your Drs are taking whatever is going on pretty seriously.

Like the others have said, I would make an appointment with a rheumatologist. There are over a 100 types of arthritis, some involving just joints, and others that are autoimmune and can affect your whole system-bones, blood, and organs. Your ortho should be able to give you some guidance as to who to see, and should be able to give you a referral. With autoimmune diseases, it can sometimes take years to have a firm diagnosis. To make things even harder, blood work can be misleading. That's why a rheumy would probably be your best bet.

Obviously, the hope is that whatever is causing your symptoms, is something short lived, with an easy answer. Please stick around and let us know what your Dr has in mind.