Chronic pain with no explanation

cwat89

First post. I'm a 31 y/o male and I've been dealing with whole body muscle/joint pain for going on 3 years now. Been tested for RA 4 times with negative results every time. I have inflamed joints on both hands that are very tender and hurt and have limited range of motion yet NO diagnosis. I have had x-rays of my hands and it shows good joint spacing with no deterioration. I have a toe on my left foot that is f'ed up six ways to Sunday and hurts badly yet x-rays show perfect joint condition. I have constant pain in most all joints and get occasional swelling in my knees. I noticed my back beginning to hurt constantly around the age of 25 or 26. I have always been overweight for nearly all of my life which I'm sure didn't help. I've also worked a lot of physical labor jobs. Well, 3 years ago, 2017, I was up to my highest weight of 260lbs at 5'10" height. So I started losing weight and at the same time got a new non physical labor low stress job. I got down to 188 lbs and leveled out to around 192-195 and stayed there for about a year. Then I went on ativan for anxiety disorder/emotional meltdown in late 2018. Ended up getting addicted to that and it caused me to start drinking alcohol A LOT. Ativan gave me tremendous energy so I was burning off the increased alcohol calories. Well after a 4 month stint of that wrecklessness ativan was taken away from me. The alcohol continued and energy bursts stopped and exercise stopped due to pain issues getting worse so therefore I gained back about 20lbs. I'm currently at 210 and while it's not ideal it's a lot lighter than I was when I started out. I have since stopped drinking for about a month and a half. I slipped up a couple times but have gotten back on the wagon.

I say all that to get to the point of losing weight and getting a much better job did NOTHING for my pain issues as they only have gotten way worse. In early 2017 I was the victim of a hit and run at my previous company which put me out and in physical therapy for increased back pain than I already had. The last neurosurgeon I visited said I have severe disc degeneration from T6-T12 and a herniated T11-T12 disc and bulging T12-L1. Also have schmorl's nodes in my thoracic spine region. He said he feels the degeneration has been there long before the wreck and that the wreck made it worse.

I have spent thousands on different primary and specialist doctor visits and blood work for zero help. I spent a lot to have a 2nd MRI done that revealed no changes than what I stated above. Chiropractic care helped for a few months but it was no longer beneficial. Massage therapy helps in the moment but then I hurt worse the next day. I have never been looked at for fibromyalgia despite me asking about it and telling the docs my grandmother had it. My most recent doctor I went to who is an Internal medicine doc is the only one who has asked if I have had a fibro diagnosis. Of course the answer is no. So he is sending me to another (hopefully better than the previous) rheumatologist. If this doesn't provide any help I don't know what to do. All I hear from people is "oh your too young to hurt like that" or "suck it up" or "just wait till you get my age" My grip strength is horrible. I enjoy tinkering with cars and mechanical stuff and fixing things and nearly everything I do hurts and hinders me enjoying these things.

Just don't know what else to do. I'm lost on an endless journey to find answers.