Severe joint pain

[NurseStacey143]

Im not asking for medical advice, just suggestions for information I can check out. My 32 year old aunt has been having SEVERE debilitating joint pain in every joint of her body for about 10 days now. The dr's do not seem to know what is going on. They have done an MRI and blood tests. The MRI of her head was normal and they are doing one on her neck next week. The blood tests have not come back as of yet. Pain medications do not help at all. 14 days ago she had a migrane for 4 days...then the severe joint pain. Please point me in the right direction. I would like to get her some info ASAP. Thanks a million!

[glascow]

She should call the rheumatologist back and let him no she can not wait one month d/t severe pain. If she doesn't know it already, teach her the 0-10 pain scale and have her relate her pain this way.

Maybe he will pay her more attention if she calls with c/o pain rated at 9 on a 0-10 scale.

If this doesn't work, get a consult for pain management (usually done by an anesthesiologist). He could help her with pain relief as well as help get to the bottom of the problem.

Good luck, keep us posted.

[LilRedRN1973]

Has your aunt ever been checked out for lupus? It can cause many of the symptoms you described. My great aunt has had lupus all her life and for the most part, was able to control it somewhat. Now that she is in her late 70's, it's starting to debilitate her. I know there are two types of lupus, but am not sure which is which.

[PennyLane, RN]

Ok, I'm not a nurse (yet), but I just saw a new doctor on Monday for my terrible acid-reflux disease. One of the things he'd like me to do is an elimination diet. The idea is that people commonly devleop allergies to foods they eat more than 3x/week. The usual culprits are wheat and dairy. Anyway, when the nurse was explaining to me how to do it, she mentioned that one of the reasons it's done is for joint pain.

If the "regular" doctors aren't offering her any relief, she may want to find a doctor who has a dietary slant. He sat with me for over an hour and listened to ALL my complaints before making any suggestions.

One down-side is that since he's not the usual kind of doctor who just writes scripts to get you out, he doesn't bill directly to insurance. You pay up front and then ask your insurance company for a reimbursement form.

[nowplayingEDRN]

I am leaning toward what passing thru said.....sounds very auto-immune to me. Lyme does not cause an all over body rash, joint pain with all over rash sounds more like Lupus to me......or it could be another tick born disease.

[CarVsTree]

Lyme does not cause an all over body rash, joint pain with all over rash sounds more like Lupus to me......or it could be another tick born disease.

I beg to differ. Lyme's is very strange and acts differently in many people. My BIL had a rash all over his legs (almost looked like circulatory problems).

My FIL had GI problems, DVT, Bell's Palsy and general malaise (he's been a crab cake FOR YEARS).

They should be running all the tick born illness titers. Many, many, (much too many) doctors don't even consider the possibility of tick born illnesses (that would be too easy).

Could be all those other diseases, but definitely pays to rule out tick borne illnesses.

BTW, my FIL was supposedly "cured" from Lyme's when he was experiencing all of those problems. His new doctor (tick born illness specialist) had a PICC line put in and he is getting A/B's through the PICC. He is a new man!

Hope they figure out what's going on with your aunt and give her some relief fast!

[MandyInMS]

Lupus was my first thought as well.