My own medical drama...

I've been dealing with some weird medical issues lately.  I really miss the days when I'd be sick, the doctor would take a strep test or some blood or something, and come back and tell me what was wrong with me and how to fix it.  I feel like my medical issues have decided to match the rest of adulthood and be vague, confusing, and decidedly not fun.  I really don't think that's cool.

I have had joint pain since I was young, and I had arthroscopic surgery to remove symptomatic plica from my knees at age 12 for one knee and 15 for the other.  That pretty much put me out of sports and much activity at all, and all around sucked.

Over the past few years, my hips and shoulders have started hurting as well.  I decided to go to a doctor about it last summer, and a blood test came back ANA positive.  Apparently ANA's are anti-nuclear antibodies and the test is used to screen for autoimmune disorders, mainly lupus.  It doesn't mean I necessarily have lupus, though.  Kind of an uncertain test, but with my joint pain, fatigue, anemia, and cold fingers and toes, the doctor felt it wise to send me to a rheumatologist.

The rheumatologist told me that I didn't look sick.  He gave me a cortisone shot and sent me on my way.  Very disappointing and confusing.

I went to another rheumatologist.  He told me, in a nicer way, that I didn't seem sick.  He said that maybe my joint pain stemmed from the H1N1 I had last May.

Okay, so maybe I don't have lupus.  I don't want to have lupus, but I do want a doctor to tell me that a 23-year-old girl should not be in pain and tired all the time.  Just saying.

So, I go to another general practitioner.  I have my third ANA test performed, and it's the third positive.  Why do they keep doing this test if it doesn't even mean anything??

I decide not to bother with the rheumatologist again.  It's $50 every time I go, and I don't want to hear that I'm not sick again.

However, today, someone told me about fibromyalgia.  Apparently it's a disorder that makes you feel pain and be tired.  Sounds familiar, especially when coupled with the nerve pain I have had in my arm and the "growing pains" I still experience in my legs.  However, fibromyalgia is also characterized by additional pain when you press "tender points" all over the body.  I'm not having success in hurting myself in my at-home tender-point test.

I'm kind of afraid to go back to the rheumatologist, but I think I should.  I guess my strongest desire with all of this is to just figure out what's wrong with me, and be done with all the uncertainty.  At least then I'll know what I can do to fix it or at least help myself feel better.  For instance, the Mayo Clinic recommends breaks and naps during the day for lupus patients, but tells those with fibromyalgia to limit daytime napping.  So, I guess I want someone to tell me if I should nap or not.

I'm really just confused, annoyed, and a bit scared.  I don't believe in god, so I don't think this is some sort of punishment, but damn, it would be a good one.

Between the hernia I was born with, the plica syndrome, the multiple oral surgeries in middle school, the kidney infection that sent me to the hospital in high school, the stomach virus I caught from an infant that sent me to the hospital in college, the freaking swine flu I got on our honeymoon, and now all this auto-immune stuff, I've pretty much been at odds with my body my whole life.  But hey, at least I don't look sick...