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All in my head?

Posted , 2 users are following.

luntha
luntha

Hi there. 46 yr old overweight male. noticed stiffness after rest for years now, finally doing something about it now. feet/ankles always a bit stiff, somedays very tired, now and then have periods of waking with lower back pain (feels locked) and have to get out of bed and get moving. lasts 5-7 days. also pain in left buttock. some joint pain in fingers, very odd sweeling/heat. last night, right elbow got hot. both knees have started hurting and have swollen twice in last 2 weeks. (overweight?) Most symptoms are bilateral.

the thing is - I am a fabulous pyschosomatic! i really have the feeling my brain is causing these things. been on strong dose of Vimovo for last 3 weeks, no effect. starting week's course of Prednisone today. Living in Vienna and have to go into hospital for an overnight stay soon. not sure why? pretty certain I will have no symptoms during that time! MRI of hands and feet on 20th June, also have feeling it will show nothing.

my dad's sister had terrible RA, was in wheelchair by age of 60 and couldn't function. my bloods sometimes show small amount of inflammation, sometimes nothing. RA is always neg.

Just have the feeling I should man up and get on with it. doesn't everyone have aches and pains? isn't everyone stiff after resting (I can feel the stiffness coming on in my feet when I sit on the sofa).

Guess I'm doing all the right things, but feel sometimes like I want a positive diagnosis and my brain is willing on the symptoms (which of course I know about by reading online!)

Any thoughts would be very welcome and sorry for the bore!

Paul

0 likes, 6 replies

6 Replies

  • luntha
    luntha

    Posted

    forgot to say, eyes very difficult to open in mornings. painful and dry....

    :-)

  • IndieKid
    IndieKid luntha

    Posted

    I guess just wait to see what the test results say... It's hard to cheat on a blood test/MRI.

    Sounds more like your brain is trying to trick you into thinking you don't have it (understandable given family history... I'm the same).

    You could try homeopathy, or similar placebo... They work great against psychosomatic conditions! ;-)

    I found just keeping a record of how much pain I was in /10 a fixed times each day helped me isolate the bad days from the good days and remind me it was real on the good days.

    Hope it gets sorted.

    • luntha
      luntha IndieKid

      Posted

      thanks IndieKid ;-)

      and sorry to read on another topic that you're in so much pain.

      Wish you well,

      Paul

    • IndieKid
      IndieKid luntha

      Posted

      Thanks, it's not that bad really, just feels worse if I'm miserable. Once I cheer up, it feels like I was making a fuss out of nothing.

      Is it something similar that makes you feel it's psychosomatic? (Feeling bad/in pain, but then once it goes feeling like it probably wasn't that bad?). If so, it's not just you! (I definitely have some kind of inflammatory arthritis, but not sure what type yet)

    • luntha
      luntha IndieKid

      Posted

      yes, definitely how i feel!

      what do your test results say? can it take time to really find out what kind of arthritis it is?

      keep smilingcheesygrin

    • IndieKid
      IndieKid luntha

      Posted

      Haven't had test results yet. Still awaiting MRI and assuming they will tell me once everything is in. I gather each individual test can be unreliable on their own so you need the big picture. (For more info, read about Bayesian statistics, then look up the false positive / negative rates for the RA blood test and you'll see what I mean.)

      I have another autoimmune condition that can spread to the joints, so doctors are calling it inflammatory arthritis until they decide which flavour it is.

      If you have symptoms, then you almost certainly have something causing them. I only know about RA and my other condition, but if it's not RA, I imagine there are lots of things it can be. Hope you get to the bottom of it soon! (Or even better, that it turns out to be some viral thing that goes away quickly)

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