Undiagnosed athritis

Ben198718

Hello,

I joined the forum today to ask some questions about my current situation.

I am a 32 year old male, I have been suffering with joint pain since I was about 22. It started with cracking in my neck (with associated pain and fatigue), at first this was really when I had over exerted myself. Over the years the cracking progressed and became more of a daily occurrence. Then I began to feel the sensation of sand or grating in my neck. In the past 3 years this has become worse and the cracking and pain have now spread to my shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands and sometimes my legs. In the last year the pain became unbearable and even the slightest amount of physical work causes me pain- standing for long periods, as well as sitting or laying also causes pain. My body cracks and pops even in the night and in the mornings I feel like an old man.

Worryingly this year I have started to experience fainting, shooting pain and have spent days in bed.

I have been to the doctors on multiple occasions, had an MRI on my up back (it was a very specific area), and now been referred to the athritis clinic (but have been waiting for my appointment since July- the appointment is November 22nd). They have now got me on a mixture of naproxen and codeine, which seems to help a bit.

This is really now taking a toll on my life and I don't even have a diagnosis yet, which I find seriously frustrating and depressing.

I wanted to post here to get some advice, to see what you all think about my current symptoms and also just to vent!

Thank you for reading,
Ben

[Deleted User]

Hi Ben,

This is the link to your initial post in helplines which has some good links for you to check out.

https://arthritiscareforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=50940

Let me know if this is helpful or if there’s maybe something specific you are looking for. We are absolutely here to let you get it of your chest, there’s a lot going on and it’s quite scary! I hope your appointment gives you lots of information, it sounds like you are in a good area having an arthritis clinic.

Take care
Yvonne x

stickywicket

Hi Ben. I'm sorry you're having such a rough time of it and wish I could help but, on here, we've no training in diagnostics and it's so long since I started with RA I've forgotten what it felt like now. I remember the fatigue more than the pain which was just in my fingers at first.

Rheumatology queues are almost always long ones. Keep a pain diary until your turn comes and take photos of any swelling. That's about all I can think of right now. Maybe others can do better.