Newly diagnosed with OA

Blundell2504

Hi all
Just introducing myself. I am a 51 year old lady who has been experiencing joint and muscle pains for 2 years now. I have a husband with COPD and I also have a very stressful office job as I am a Company Secretary for a large company and deal with a lot of problems on a daily basis.

Initially my Dr thought my issue was hormone related and put me on HRT as he said that would help my aches and pains.
I stayed on it for 10 months ( to give it plenty of time to work ) during this time I gained a lot of weight and felt like I had PMT all the time, but eventually returned to the Dr as my joints were still aching so it obviously wasn’t helping.

He told me to come off the HRT which I did immediately ( PMT symptoms have gone now thankfully ) he arranged for blood tests and sent me for xrays on my hands.

I went back today and he confirmed that the Xrays showed I have OA in my hands and wrists and I am anemic, however the blood tests showed no sign of inflammation so it’s not rheumatoid.

I also have issues with my big toes, knees shoulders and my right hip which aches when I am in bed. ( the Dr said he didn’t think it was Arthritis in my hip, more likely Bursitis ???. ) I ache all over like I have a bad case of flu without the cough etc and I am constantly tired. My hands are now very weak and I have trouble doing something as simple as screwing up a piece of paper or gripping folders to pick them up. Things like putting my socks on are also very painful but Dr assured me it’s only moderate arthritis so it shouldn’t be that bad. He also said he couldn’t understand the muscle pain and weakness as Arthritis wouldn’t cause either Muscle Pain OR weakness in my hands.

It was decided that I should take Iron tablets for a month to see if that makes a difference / helps , if it doesn’t help, he said he doesn’t know what is wrong and he needs to give it more thought, he said it could be Fibromyalgia.

My question is does all this sound right to you guys on here. I was telling one of the ladies I work with and she said lots of Drs don’t believe that Fibromyalgia exists and it’s just a made up condition / excuse that people who sleep a lot use. Needless to say this left me feeling like I was faking it.

Any advice on what I should do going forward would be really appreciated.

Thank you for taking the time to read this. I feel better getting it all off my chest.