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MGUS. Post strep arthritis. EBV and CMV positive I have been unwell for over 4 months now. It started when I was on hoilday in Portugal and had sore eyes, headache , hypersensitive skin, rash and very painful joints and swelling. Had bloods taken there (C-reactive protein)and back home and what has shown up is I have strep throat positive titre (reactive arthritis) - After investigation :MGUS - ebv and cmv positive and ANA 1-160. I feel awful most of the time with a myriad of symptoms and am off work (I am a teacher). There seems slight improvement on some days while most are fairly debilitating. I also have worsening digestive problems-heartburn/bloating/burping and recently had an attack of pleurisy. What do you think? I have been prescribed omeprazole,domperidone (which is helping) and anti-inflammatory pills. My fingers are often swollen and painful and weak. My ankles are painful also knees and lower back and hips. Also neck. Under my armpits are swollen and have felt nodules in my neck-they come and go. I often have sore throat -swab is clear now and have developed what I think are mouth ulcers-which I haven't mentioned to doctor as symptoms are so numerous. At night on occasion,pain wakes me up and it can be a crushing or burning feeling in ribs,feet or hands or tingling. Sometimes my bones feel like they are bruised and the vibration from walking is painful, tendons feel tight and obvious swelling around ankle/achilles. When I walk longer distances my legs 'puff up' and ther is more heat in anklesor/and knees and lower back. I am a bit dopey (not usually) but noticably clumsy- articles flying out of my hands when I have picked them up - eyesight/coordination deteriorated and often pressing the key next to intended one on keyboard when typing- so confidence has been affected. Sorry to add on but I thought it might help with answering. I am upset about where these ebv and cmv infections have come from.I am a clean living person.I understand the strep throat as there was scarlet fever at school and often had children sneezing and coughing on me - took anti biotic for sore throat at the time - carried on working(January time) until May when I was really struggling and strep was diagnosed- been unable to work ever since.

Should I seek a second opinion privately or should I accept this diagnosis of fibromyalgia? I have been unwell for nearly four years, at first all my symptoms in hindsight were just irritating but slowly then rapidly they have become totally debilitating . at the moment for the first time since the start of my working life I have been unable to work for nearly two months. I am 31 but feel and am starting to look older than my 70 year old mother Since starting to be unwell I have seen five general practitioners, a nurse practitioner and three consultants. I have had all manner of blood tests as well as an eeg, ecg and mri all either clear or mostly within normal parameters. I have been told many fun things, from “i don’t have time to look at your notes” to “this is all clearly anxiety, what are you really worried about?” .At almost every turn a mistake of some description has been made some simply amusing and others slightly more serious for example being misdiagnosed and being prescribed a cocktail of medications that should not have been prescribed together, thank goodness for my pharmacist! Out of the five general practitioners I have seen four managed to miss an underactive thyroid that was suggested in my notes ten years previously. Without physical examinations, each doctor in turn found out another piece of the puzzle before giving up on trying to diagnose me, happy for me to go away in great pain with little more than dihydrocodeine. which I have now been on regularly for over two years. My current general practitioner after my latest round of blood tests came back without showing anything new has now diagnosed me with fibromyalgia. a diagnosis that means an end to further investigation, any hope I have of finding out what is actually wrong and therefor any hope of treatment. This diagnosis blankets any individual problems I may have with a fibromyalgia being the simple answer for everything. i feel fibromyalgia does not match my symptoms and will give me little hope of progressing past being stoned on dihydrocodeine, pregabalin and potentially now antidepressants. I do not believe I have this illness and I do believe he is labelling me with this to bring an end to investigating my problems. However I am not a doctor and am clearly affected in my opinion because I have not had the most productive and straightforward interactions with medical professionals. Initially I started to feel a little iffy with a little uncomfortable pain, weight gain, eye sight deterioration , passing out, exhausted and cognitively I was turned off eg slurring my words and slowing of everything mentally. my periods were becoming more and more troublesome in heaviness an increase in facial hair and thinning of the hair on my head. These symptoms were starting to affect my life so I made an appointment with a gp. just before this appointment i went down with a kidney infection, very nearly ending up in hospital. The pain I had during this infection didn’t go away when the infection did and became so severe I could barely walk. At this point I saw a neurologist and attended the eye hospital. I had a clear mri and eeg with a suggested diagnosis of a form of narcolepsy. my eye health was fine. the high pressure and deteriorating sight baffled the doctor who tested me for diabetes which I did not have . My symptoms worsened, my gp gave me more dihydrocodeine and amitriptyline. I started to suffer from numbness more dizziness and was passing out more and more I also developed boils inside my inner thighs and I was constantly on a very heavy period. My pain was becoming unbearable so at this point i started see a new gp who believed my pain to be neuropathic and prescribed me gabapentin, which had a positive impact on the pain and antibiotics for the boils. she started investigating my periods and associated slightly squiffy hormone levels. I was diagnosed with pcos without cysts with no treatment. Again I got worse so after being told there was nothing else she could do I sought out another gp for no apparent reason or change in diet or exercise at this point I started to lose a lot of weight about two stone very quickly. My new gp did some tests and discovered the underactive thyroid and a vitamin d deficiency. I started levothyroxine and supplements and apart from a small amount of totally manageable pain I was in heaven I didn’t have to take any dihydrocodeine and felt better than I had in years. I then kept getting chest infection after chest infection and was told the lining of my lungs was inflamed but each time antibiotics fixed me until another infection a few weeks later and so on. this all caused my asthma to flare up for the first time in ten years and was prescribed a simicort inhaler . My skin infection also worsened so I had my antibiotics changed to tetralysal. It was discovered by an acupuncturist that I had a rapid heart beat after a fast but normal ecg that was put down to pain levels although at this point the pain wasn’t that bad. Despite all of this I felt so well. I did everything I was told to even getting 20minutes of sun a day, it was wonderful. Throughout this time I continued to lose weight in total losing four stone. Then out of the blue after nearly six months I started to get tired again. my hair started to fall out again but this time in handfuls and I developed spots all over my scalp. My rapid heart beat started to feel different, it started to show on my abdomen and almost balloon like in my body mostly while at rest. I gave up caffeine thinking it would help these palpitations, it didn’t and overall I went further down hill. I started getting rashes on my face and calf muscles. my pain returned growing to the worst it had ever been, feeling like my bones, muscles, skin, joints were being eaten from the inside out. I was getting flu like symptoms frequently with temperatures from 35 to 39, all the symptoms that had been put down to the thyroid came back with a vengeance. my periods disappeared then came back. tired became exhausted and I was virtually passing out again and when out and could stay out for 18hrs with no one able to raise me. I started to get muscle spasms and cramps everywhere from my forehead to my hands even bum cheeks! my skin looked bruised and blotchy and the veins on my hands and arms started to painfully swell . Parts of my right leg became perminantely numb as did the left side of my forehead after a spasm that gave me a three week headache and an eyebrow stuck in a disbelieving position half way up my forehead. The glands in my neck(to the side more so than the front), armpits and groin were up and down to the size of golf balls. I started to gain weight again. I had electrolysis for the facial hair and almost immediately I felt like I had been hit by a truck with a dose of the flu built in it was now that I had to take time off from work. I went back to the gp who tested for lupus and checked my thyroid, no lupus and my thyroid was now at the higher end of normal. All other results within normal parameters except a foliate deficiency. And now we arrive at the fibromyalgia diagnosis. My gp referred me to the pain clinic. I am very thankful to him for this and for the care he has given me up to now, I do understand fully the limitations of time and I do feel guilty taking up appointments that could go to very ill patients and i not mean to sound ungrateful for the work he has put in. I need someone that has unbiased knowledge to tell me or advise me which way to turn here, is this fibromyalgia? has being stuck in a painful incorrectly functioning body turned me into a hypochondriac and consequently am i making myself worse? Should I accept this and try to work with this diagnosis Or do I financially stretch myself to go to a private gp who has the time to deal with me?

strange blood flow? hi ive been having this problem for a few months now. im male 26 and swim for a living and very active 5'10 and im sure theres something not right with my blood flow. I het at diffrent parts on my boody a fluttery pulse way difrent from a nreve but simaler. I get it down my outside of my legs around knee area, upto my shoulders front side and if I put presure around the area it seems to increase. it feels like a my bloods having a hard time getting through. I dont know how to go about getting it checked? thanks ************

Chronic chilblains I've suffered from chilblains on my toes every winter since I was a child. I do all the obvious things - keep my feet warm, never put them on hot radiators, wear thick sox etc, which works to some extent but every time I get caught out and my feet get cold, I get another crop of them. My toes are quite disfigured now all year round. I know my circulation is poor as my fingers go white when they get cold. Otherwise I'm a healthy 47 year-old woman. I don't smoke or drink, I'm not overweight. I beleive there may be drugs that can help prevent chilblains.

Whole body aching i am a 46yr old male , im an ex rugby player and am usually fit and active and attend the gym 4 times a week , but the last week i have been aching from head to toe even my groin and am finding it hard to walk . i have been taking solphadine and ibrufen but nothing is working . i suffer from high blood pressure and take medication for this

What are the long-term effects of steroid injections, the first one for six months and then renewable? I have joint pain in most of my joints, subsequent to stopping HRT suddenly, on the advice of my doctor. I am aged 65. I was doing very well on HRT with no problems after 15 years. It has been confirmed that it is not osteo-arthritis. Yesterday I saw a rheumatologist who without further ado proposed a course of steroid injections. I rejected this treatment because I am frightened of the long-term effects. The specialist did not say that I had rheumatism. I believe it is a hormonal problem and I am proposing to ask to see an endocrinologist before I start on steroids.