Anyone knowledgable of musculoskeletal problems?

[Ilmb]

Iv been to the gp and had blood tests done last week but wondered if anyone can shed any lights?

For quite a few years Iv had problems with myscles, joints, tendons etc. I have a bad back and see a chiropractor every 6 weeks and that helps. I get random muscle aches for no reason. For example I will wake up with my arm muscles hurting like when you go to the gym for the first time. Iv got tenndonitus in the joints in my palm of my hand (the finger joint bit) and it just flares up randomly. I have a type of tendonitis in one of my ankles that flares up. My back will hurt/ache if I lean over for example, then lean back up. I have arthritus in my little finger. Right now there is a awful pain in my right arm, the muscle that runs up from the inside of the wrist.... Nothing has any pattern and it is random. Sometimes muscles sometimes joints. Had rheumatoid looked at one bloods and gp said all were fine. Not deficient. Take vitamin d and magnesium plus multi vitamins.

She said it doesbt sound like arthritis at all. Some days I wake up fine, some days I wake up hurting. No pattern and no reason for it all. Gp said ask my chiro when I see her next of opinion and then go back and book double appointment and she will refer me to the ‘musculoskeletal department’. She has no idea. I’m 36, done dribk or smoke. Healthy diet, I do Pilates/yoga or swim. I can’t run as I get pains in my shins. Drink plenty of water....
Has anyone had similar or could shed any light? I feel much older than my years and I do worry about what will happen to my body when I’m old../

I was just looking at that actually. I know I have arthritis in my little finger, have done since a teen, that pain is not the same as the other pains. My problem is because it’s joints AND muscle that I get problems with that it’s not easy to know what it is. Random muscle aches aren’t the same as the joints hurting to the point just brushing pAssed them hurts. The random tenndonitus I have on the palm of my hands make it horrific to change gear..... next day it’s fine.

I have some arthritis but it’s not in proportion to my pain if that makes sense. And muscles ache. Randomly and enough to make it hard to walk.

Do you run wolfie? I can’t and I wish I could. I envy runners.... as soon as I run not matter how warmed up I am I get awful pain up and down my shins. Someone suggested shin splints. I had my gait measured or what ever you call it and was fitted for correct trainers etc but I just can’t do it!

Hi Op, sorry you're not feeling so good.

I have Fibro and a lot of what you say resonates with me. The wheat and dairy, aching joints, bruising, shin splints after walking, pains in hands when driving, random pains here, there and everywhere.
I call it the Shapeshifter, because that's what it does. It has no reason or rhyme to it., and changes daily, hourly, by the minute.

As others have said, Fibro is diagnosed by ruling out all others. So whilst all your testing is going on, take it easy. Avoid foods that cause discomfort, and the same with activities.

This is not to say it is Fibro, just that again, as pp's have said, there is a group of auto immune diseases with symptoms that are interchangeable.

Hope you get it sorted.

Sounds like Fibromyalgia.
I have had fibromyalgia 20-odd years & it sucks. No test for it; they diagnose through excluding everything else.
Pain in joints & muscles.
Started with carpal tunnel type pain in hands, deep ache in wrist & finger joints.
Sometimes very random, severe pain in one place (often my clavicle) & then fine the next day.
Fatigue & non-restorative sleep.
IBS is part of the syndrome - cut out wheat & dairy.
Post-exercise malaise - I have flu-like symptoms if I exercise at anything past moderate pace. I couldn't run because I'd be in bed for days after.
I work long hours in a high-stress job; others with condition are significantly disabled.
Amitrityline & B12 patches have been life-changing for me. Read up on spoon-theory to pace yourself.
I reject heavy painkillers because they make me feel grim & don't help pain much.
Good like OP - PM me if you want more detail

Thanks everyone I really appreciate you all taking the time to answer and share your experiences. With my children, during pregnancy I had horrific carpel tunnel and it lasted quite a few years and the gp said she wouldn’t recommend the operation for it (I’m a LP) but that did resolve. My fingers do still often get stiff and sort of stuck but I can open them fine.

I feel better you all sharing, as I feel like I’m going made with all these random ‘problems’ that can’t be pin pointed and everyone shrugging their shoulders at me, I feel like I’m making it up sometimes!

Run? Today I’m struggling to walk without a walking stick!
I have back problems and have been advised not to run anyway.

I’m already on mirtaziline for anxiety and to help me fall asleep, isn’t that drug (keep misspelling!) and anti depressant? I don’t get one well with those, Iv been on Prozac and some others in the past and I don’t like the effect they have on me whereas the mirtazipine has taken the edge off my anxiety and no side effects.

Oh god sorry wolfie, I just wondered if it really is shin splints and not something else in my legs.

It’s alright. I’m not built to run anyway!
I’m sitting on the sofa with my legs wrapped in a blanket. Dreading having to sort dinner as that means walking to the kitchen.
And YYY to feeling like you must be imagining it or making it up.

I think it’s my back that has made me get to a point to sort this out. As I said I had a couple of car accidents quite a while ago, had problems with my back but my new chiropractor really made a difference and I was feeling like I was mending until 4 years ago some idiot smashed into me in the car and damaged my right shoulder and lower back. My chiro puts me back together and it really helps but she has to put my pelvis back in place each time and I still have pain and I feel like I always have pain but I’m used to it being part of my daily life now?

I’ve got slipped discs and arthritis and had steroids injected. It’s made a real difference.

It does, unfortunately, sound like fibromyalgia. Sometimes just one joint in my finger hurts so badly that it completely swamps my psychy. It's also random while simultaneously being predictable, bitch of an illness. Sorry x

Have they really? My dad had them for a shoulder injury and they made it worse. When my gp told me o had tenndonitus in my palm I asked what will get rid of it? He said only steroid injection but he wouldn’t recommend it. You’re the first person Iv come across they’ve helped. Do you have to have them regularly?

I’m worried about the future as a LP as one of my dc is disabled and I doubt he will be independent when he’s an adult so I’m worried what my future looks like to enable me to still look after him and be able to work to have the money to help him etc

They injected the slipped discs but it didn’t help. So they did the arthritis. I was told any effect would be temporary but that was a few years ago.
It was private. I’ve been told by the NHS they wouldn’t have done that treatment. They don’t seem keen on it at all.

Go and see a physio not a chiroprator, I've had a bad back for 20 years, spent so much money on chiroprators and oesteopaths, plus little help from GP apart from more pain killers.

Physio has said my issue is muscle weakness and I'm in a program of curing AND prevention, I've had some really random complications from these weak muscles that I thought I had something hideously wrong with me but it's just by body compensating in new and interesting ways.

(I see a private physio, not NHS as they only did 'hands off' therapy and I need a good poking to release muscles before learning to use them correctly)

Iv already had a lot of physio and it didn’t help me, Iv seen so many people and spent thousands and thousands, the lady I see I trust and I know I would be so much worse if I didn’t see her, she was getting me back on track before the last car accident I had which knackered me.

I think you’re right wolfie nhs don’t seem to like them.

Have a look at Scleroderma and CREST syndrome, they're not terribly common, but are another set of symptoms that can take a long time to get a diagnosis.

EDS sufferer here, your symptoms sound like classic EDS to me, the fact that your son has hypermobility is a compelling factor too, there is a 50% chance of passing it on to a child if you have it. Because it's a disease that can affect all connective tissue gut symptoms can form part of the overall presentation, this aspect can often get overlooked. Sadly it's a condition that often gets diagnosed as fibromyalgia, EDS symptoms often become more problematic the older we get. Your route to good effective management is via a rheumatologist and then a geneticist. Good luck.

I’ve just had a diagnosis of fibromyalgia and have similar symptoms to you. Ask to be referred to a rheumatologist. All my bloods were ok.
He diagnosed my by asking questions about my symptoms and also testing pressure points which hurt.

sea what use would a geneticist be? There’s no hypermobility on either my parents side? No idea about dc father, never came up in convo and we have no contact...

Some hypermobility syndromes can be tested for genetically so a geneticist would be able to advise. It is possible to be hypermobile without having a genetic syndrome- for example if someone does lots of gymnastics, but conversely many good gymnasts are also hypermobile. The chances are though that either you or your son's father carry a gene which he has inherited, so if he is hypermobile there is a good chance that that also explains your symptoms. Ultimately though the treatment is similar to that which you are doing. One thing you might add in is some Pilates (not yoga). Strength and balance is to be aimed for.

The symptoms of a hypermobility syndrome go beyond hypermobility as Seafour says, and you don't have to be currently hypermobile in order to have a diagnosis, certainly most adults are not as flexible as children. It can affect joints, dislocations, hernias, stomach, anxiety, photosensitivity, there is a long list of possible symptoms - but it varies between individuals even within the same family. .

Doctors are in my experience reluctant to diagnose it and will say that because you aren't hypermobile in all your joints you aren't hypermobile- there are many more symptoms than just having a flexible wrist and if you have frequent injuries you will be less flexible due to scar tissue. It is worth seeing an expert.

Off to see the chiropractor today to see what she says.... she’s so anti doctors she will probably tell me it’s stress...

Op, look into your iron levels & esp your ferritin. Also have a look at Oxalates in your diet along with SIBO. You might find som answers there.

Op a geneticist can help eliminate a whole swathe of conditions and more importantly confirm eds and then arrange genetic counselling for the rest of the family. Eds can go unnoticed in someone who has it apart from very mild symptoms which can often be wrongly diagnosed or missed completely. It came too late for me, my daughter has been ill most of her life and only got diagnosed in her twenties, this led to my diagnosis and that of one of my other children and one of their dc. It's all about knowledge and being able to make choices.