jmarkb777

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello all,
I am new to the forum. I have a condition that might be arthritis, but the dr's aren't quite sure if it is or not..one thinks its a neuropathy....their opinions vary. Here is my situation:
I am a 53 year old male who was in good health before the onset of my condition which began on april 22, 2005 this year. I awoke that morning with exptreme pain in my hips and legs. There was no reason why I should have any pain there.I was fine when I went to bed....my usual exercise the day before was only walking, which I did everyday for about 30 minutes, so this was already unusual for me.
after a couple of weeks of suffering badly with severe pain I went to a clinic in may and was diagnosed with " a lumbar neuropathy". Since then the pain became worse and escalated by going into both shoulders and upper arms(extreme pain in shoulders upon waking), my lower back, spine, neck, buttocks, and both feet. I went to an emergency hospital on june 6th....they took blood tests, back x-rays, ecg, and a physical exam by the physician...the physician told me he thought I had ankylosing spondylitis.....my test results were: HLA B27 negative (I did not have) RF-5 (normal) ESR-15 normal uric acid 4.6 NE (normal) and all the other blood tests came back in the normal range..also back x-rays were fine..no problems were indicated on any of the tests performed..when i called to get this information the next day I was told by another physician that I don't have the gene for ankylosing spondylitis, just all of the symptoms. The pain is most severe at nite when trying to sleep and especially in the morning when I try to get out of bed. I am so severely stiff, and painfully sore that I can hardly get up. Simple tasks are now difficult to do, such as getting dressed putting on socks and shoes.(its almost imposssible to lift my legs up to do this now) Walking is very difficult because of the pain in hips, legs and feet..when I walk it just feels really odd now.. When I sit down and get up the pain is acute and I have to stand & wait at least a minute before I can start to walk.....also sitting down the pain is severe, its painful to even sit for longer than a few minutes.....the back side of my legs starts to ache & hurt within moments and my feet as well.I have some swelling around my right ankle on the inside and top of my right foot. I was prescribed hydrocodone for the pain which helps a little, but doesn't adequately treat this. It is a very deep kind of pain that feels like it goes thru muscles, nerves, tendons, ligaments, etc.all the way to the bone, and the pain can be very sharp, especially upon sudden movements etc.Since the onset of this condition it has worsened day by day to the point where I am worried that I will not be able to get out of bed or walk etc. I am always fatigued.... It has disturbed my sleeping habits also. I only can sleep a few hours a nite because of the severe pain....every time I try to turn over in bed I am awakened by this. I can only sleep on my back. I also get chills, cold sweats after doing simple tasks, and feel a kind of weakness in my legs. I have become nervous and full of anxiety because of all this and overall I just don't feel well (obviously)....low energy level too. I have been to another dr. since the ER visit, and he thought It could be some kind of arthritic condition, but he doesn't know for sure and seems puzzled by my symptoms. I looked on the internet and discovered a condition known as polymyalgia rheumatica.(PMR) My symptoms seem to very much fit this condition as well, altho no dr. has mentioned PMR to me. Seems each day this condition is worsening.
I would appreciate any input anyone might have on this....its been very tough to live with, and seems to get more intense as time goes on.

John