3 Weeks of Pain?

Since the last week of June, i've had non-stop pain in certain areas of my body. I have tried to pin-point it to over-stretching or over-use of computers/laptops, etc... but the fact is, is that the pain is transferring from different body parts.

The first week I noticed pain in my right leg hip flexor, causing me to strain when walking, pain lasted for one week.
The second week, pain transferred to my left hand, by the second day, the pain being unbearable, making me cry like a baby. Icing didnt really help, was painful to touch or move this hand.
And now, my left shoulder, where I can't lift it above my head.

I can't really describe the pain, its almost like its tendon pain of all sorts.

Can someone tell me if this strikes any similarities to arthritis, fibromyalgia or rhu. arthritis? My doctor has no clue and wants me to see a chiropractor.

Truly. I feel like life hates me, lol.

Hmm, janey thanks for the information! I'm going to look up Alexander Technique Teachers, my posture could use work, and normally when I think of Posture, I only think of my 'back' but it could also be arms and legs i'm sure.

Wait what? Serenity, what symptoms did you come across? Were they very similar?

What your describing is strikingly similar to mine... when my hand cramped up it was gradually over a day (with me puzzled... bending it, stretching it) second day in agony, can't move it. While other pains (my shoulder and hip flexor hurt... but really only when in motion.

I'm so happy to say that after this 2 month diet, my doc and I were planning on getting off asacol.

What sucks about this drug is that I can't get a straight answer on whether its actually doing much for me, or not. Thanks Serenity.

You're welcome. Let me know what happens - if the pain goes away before or after you stop Asacol. I'd be interested to hear.

Good luck with that. The only way I got my joint pain under control was to go on 3 months of pred, followed by 3 months of entocort and then adding sulfasalazine to my pillbox. It got to the point, before treatment, that I had to stop jogging because my jaw hurt too much. Not my knees, my jaw. That was awful.

You might want to consider seeing a rheumatologist to rule out other possibilities.

I doubt the joint pain is directly related to the Asacol. Correlation does not imply causation.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correlation_does_not_imply_causation

Anything helps wolverine. Literally, the past few hours have been hell. A few days ago pain was at my shoulder not allowing me to lift. Just when I think its getting better, the pain comes back in full force in the lower arm area a few hours ago after taking asacol. I had to take a pain reliever.

Just shoot me. Anyone? anyone. Its obvious the world isn't content unless I'm in agony.

unless you chew the assacol, there is no possible way for a pill that is supposed to take 4-6 hours for the enteric coating to dissolve, can possibly be dissolved in 30 minutes - much less have had time to "do something" to cause a pain response.

unless you are allergic to the coating on the pill, the only way that pill could have caused pain in 30 minutes would be a psychological response.

My worst experience with joint pain (that I wrote about above, involving several months on pred) involved my hands (pinky joint and big thumb joint - randomly switching from right to left with no warning), wrists (including a red swelling on the bump which excited my GI), elbows and shoulders. And my jaw, probably because I grind my teeth at night and in the middle of all this inflammation I lost my night guard and spent three weeks grinding my teeth.

I'm older than you, stereo, and was very physically active in my childhood and young adult years, with the old injuries that go along with that. They include a broken shoulder and a smashed knee. Those old injuries are always the first ones to hurt - I don't think the knee pain I have is enthesitis - I really think it's just an old injury that is aggravated by my autoimmune system. My elbows had been stretched out by years of downhill ski racing (carrying skis up and down the racecourse will do that) and they get sore earlier than other parts of my body too.

After the birth of both of my girls, my feet became impossibly painful. I think that's a pretty common experience post-partum, but during the time when all my joints hurt my feet hurt as well. I've had plantar fasciitis before, and this felt similar, but all over instead of localized. That is definitely a tendonitis kind of thing.

Since I started taking the sulfazine, my hands have really been fine (up until a couple of weeks ago, when I started what I think is a new flare). Even now, in the midst of this stewing bowel stuff, my hands are merely stiff. Not that crazy painful wake-you-up-at-night shiz I had before. No red swellings, either.

Kazbern mentioned Sulfasalazine ... it is an "old school" drug that I took for over 2 years with great success. It is also used for rheumatoid arthritis. It REALLY helped with many of my aches and pains that I had. I had pains that migrated around my body and it seemed to be a great help with things. I managed to get to the gym more often and therefore was able to lose over 40 pounds over the course of 8 months which of course made me feel even better.

Talk with your doc about Sulfasalazine and whether it might be an option for you.

Well, I'm sure you can find a hundred different reasons why your joints are hurting, and they'll either be right or not, and you'll either buy into them or not, and it doesn't really matter what anyone in the internet thinks because only you can choose how to treat your disease (or not treat it, as the case may be).

I suggested a rheumy to you because in my personal experience, my GI was not able or willing to help me manage my joint pain until the rheumy got on his case (after he eliminated other possible sources of this pain). My rheumy continues to be the best DR I have - he integrates everything, always considers the big picture and holds my other DRs accountable. If you were to see a rheumy, I can't promise he'd be as awesome as this guy. But rheumatologists are very accustomed to the oddities and random nature of autoimmune illnesses, and they've seen everything related to joints, including enteritis arthritis, many times more often than your GI.

Stereo, I had to wait a long time to get into see my rheumy too.

I'd suggest you increase your Asacol back to the 4g dose level and see if that helps relieve your joint pain. Of course, I'd like to see you using mesalamine enemas, too.