Catch up

After two and half months of various testing and over 1000 dollars in medical bills I have an idea of what is causing my pain.  I had my physical in January where all bloodwork came back normal but due to some gastrointestinal issues and low potassium and pain in my abdomen and lower back on the same side my doc sent me for a CT scan.  I came back that I could possibly have a tumor or IBD.  I was extremely scared.  She then sent me for a GI visit that then turned into a EDG and colonoscopy.  After feeling completely violated all results came back normal and healthy.  I just have a weird ileocecal valve that showed abnormal on the CT scan.  Praise God for that.

But my back pain was still an issue so back to the doc I went and we started from scratch.  She ordered a MRI and gave me some high doses of NSAIDs believing I had sacroiliitis and needed to rule any tumor or disc problems out.  The NSAIDs reduced my pain enough that instead of waking up at 3am I was now in the 5am range.  Which was a blessing.  She referred me for bloodwork and PT for sacroiliitis.  The blood work was to test an antigen in my blood that would be another part of diagnosing a set of diseases called spondylarthropathies (she was looking for ankylosing spondylitis).

My MRI results came back that I had no evidence of sacroiliitis but I do have significant damage from degenerative arthropathy in my sacroiliac joints.  This is just another word for osteoarthritis.  Something I always assumed affected people 50 and up.  Anyway, the nurse could tell me nothing else but told me my doc needed me to make an appointment with the rheumatologist as soon as possible to discuss my MRI, diagnosis, and treatment plan.  I will see him at the end of April.

I'm still reeling from all of this.  OA at 35 and possible earlier since this pain started around 32.  I just can't believe I was that hard on my joints.  In the meantime, I will be working to lower my weight to reduce the strain on the my joints and exercising everyday to keep mobility.  I've done two PT sessions but I told him I'm going to wait until I have a firm diagnosis on whether this OA is primary or secondary and some kind of reduction of inflammation that is still causing a lot of pain.

Anyway, that's why I've been absent for so long.  I didn't realize how much this pain had taken over my mind.  For awhile that's all I could focus on.  So now I'm trying to get my brain back on track on the things that matter.  My marriage, my kids, and just living life instead of waiting to see what the next test result brings.