Osteoarthritis or more?

No not really. My back has been broken at L-5 since high school football and I cannot wait for that to self fuse but I do not have ankylosing spondilitis which is somehow related to UC and fuses all vertabrae - do you have it ?

I do have zero cartilidge in left hand basal thumb joint which is 95% better do to consuming 1 spoonful of MSM every morning. Sulfasalazine is helpful for that and UC.

HLA-B27 is strongly associated with ankylosing spondylitis (AS), and other associated inflammatory diseases referred to as "spondyloarthropathies".

Yes....I'm 45 and feel like 65. I am not bad enough to warrant joint replacement tho. But I also have Peripheral Arthritis as well. Just a FYI, even while in remission, Uc can still cause joint pain but sometimes it can trigger Fibromyalgia. Fibro might feel like it's coming from the joints but it can be body wide. Females are more prone to Fibro then men. I swore up and down that my pain was coming solely from my joints, but it turned out that while yes I have Peripheral arthritis but I also have Fibro as well. I went to a rheumatologist and he confirmed it. My PA acts up when my colon does and my Fibro, well it decides it acts up when it wants to! lol My Fibro affects the muscles surrounding the joints, which in turn makes it feel like it IS my joints. So is it possible that this might be your problem?

UC Prisoner,

If you have been utilizing corticosteroids any time in the last year, what you're experience could what they call "pseudo-rheumatism," which is arthritis-like joint inflammation tied to your Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis, which drugs like Prednisone knock right out of whack.

Now, I say any time in the last year, as it can take about that long for adrenal glands to get back up to speed, after being fatigued, or totally shut right down, by synthetic cortisol use. Yet, in a percentage of people (around 12% or so, according to one source) these steroids can induce fibromyalgia, which would spell out pain lasting longer than a year -- lasting a lifetime. D:

Inward Flame - no, no steroid use

FS London - thanks ... but even if a spondylitis dx is an eventual evil I probably would avoid medications until unable to tolerate the pain any longer. I've read lots re ankylosing spondylitis and actually have a college coed (and her mom) who are plaqued with this disease so am very familiar with it. Not only am I Hla-b27 negative all the inflammation blood tests are negative so who the heck knows. Pain at night is also a telltale sign of this arthritis but I sleep through the night (except for occasional menopausal insomnia)

I suppose I won't know more until more develops but this insidious increasing pain (and fatigue) started more than 25 yrs ago for me so I'm not in a rush. I could probably pressure my rheumy to request an MRI but if I plan to avoid the rxs anyway what's the point?

I'm curious more to know if anyone else has similar arthritis but negative blood tests (all tests are negative except for a slightly elevated ANA ... no lupus, sjogren's, raynaud's, etc ... and I've been thoroughly tested!)

I get pain all through my joints -- knees, hips, hands -- but mostly the pain is a dull ache in the muscles of my arms and legs, shoulders and back. It feels as if the fibres of the muscles are taut, as if in a permanent tightened state, until pain occurs.

These flares of full body pain and weakness follow my UC flares. I can feel when I am bleeding internally, just by judging the body pain that day.

Post-exertional malaise is crippling. I know I must exercise, but again and again, I am bedridden for days afterwards because I must recover from pushing too hard (yet doing simple exercises I'd done for years previously.)

I'm hoping to find some answers. The prednisone ****ed me up in ways I don't fully understand. My whole life has been limited by this constant pain and fatigue.