Joint pain, rash, reoccuring fever, fatigue, headaches (long post)

[Preschoolmom]

First, I am a 30 yr old female, my height is 5’3”, I weigh 126 lbs, and I am a fairly active person. I don’t run marathons; however, I am a pre-school teacher for eleven 3-4 yr olds. Under normal circumstances I am usually jumping around the room while singing songs, playing duck-duck goose, and we even do 15 minutes of daily stretches and breathing. I am also the single mom of a two yr old, so I do plenty of chasing around the house as well. I am not on any medications and I rarely take any over the counter medication. I have eaten healthier in the last year or so than I have ever before in my life.
I woke up from a brief nap on Dec 25th and my right wrist hurt as though it could have been out of place. Within an hour my left ankle was hurting as well. A few hours later both my ankles, both wrists, and my right shoulder were hurting. The next day I woke up with only minor pain in my right shoulder, both ankles, right wrist, and both elbows. As the day went on the pain level increased and by that evening I could barely hold my purse. By the 27th, the pain had moved into my knees as well, but my right shoulder felt fine. The pain seems to move from joint to joint, it does not feel like a sore muscle, and there is no apparent swelling. It almost feels as though the joint has been over-extended. If I lay still and all my joints are well supported the pain goes away; however, even standing and my arm dangling from my shoulder causes pain. I have tried taking 800 milligrams of ibuprofen and it does not seem to affect the level of pain at all, which I find unusual.
I went to my regular doctor on the 29th and upon exam; he noticed a very fine rash on my back, stomach, and thighs. This rash looks like light red blotches and has a feel like fine sandpaper. This rash was not something that I had noticed in the days before, and did not seem to itch. The nurse stated that I did not have a fever, and the doctor ordered quite a few blood tests. He also went ahead and prescribed me “Indomethacin”. I took the Indomethacin that evening at my parents while having dinner, and fell asleep on their couch within 45 minutes. My mom tried to wake me up a couple of times, but she said I was just “too out of it”. I woke up the next morning, and my pain was gone. However, I could not continue to take this medicine because I cannot be “knocked out” when caring for a 2 yr old. I called the doctor the next day and he told me to try 400 milligrams of naproxen until my lab results came back.
The naproxen did not seem to help either as the pain in my knees came back later that night. I could not fully extend my knees and had to walk like an 80 yr old who normally uses a wheelchair. On the 31st I woke up and my knees were slightly sore along with one of my ankles, but the pain was gone by that afternoon. However, it was replaced by a headache and shooting pains in my head. I took my temperature and noticed that I had a low grade fever 99.9F. My joints were still somewhat stiff, but not unusable.
On the 1st, my joints were still slightly stiff, but my shin bones ached, and I'm now feeling tired, weak, and rundown. I took my temperature that morning and it was normal; however, by that evening the shooting pains in my head had returned along with my low grade fever. I have had a headache with fever before, but this does not feel the same. These symptoms continued until about the 3rd when I also started feeling some muscle stiffness mostly in my shoulder blades and lower neck region along with a feeling of heaviness and chest pressure. The low grade fever seems to come and go and is usually accompanied by strong sharp pains in my head.
On the 5th my doctor finally got my test results back he had ran the following labs: CBC, CMP, SED rate, Lyme titer, RA, TSH, uric acid(DH). He said that everything looked quite normal that the only concern was that my iron and HDL (good cholesterol) were very slightly under what they should be. Since my rash is still present, along with the low grade fever, and my various other symptoms he is referring me to a Rheumatologist. He also prescribed generic “Mobic”. The mobic seemed to help, but the rash spread to my arms overnight and I am not sure if this is a side effect of the drug. I looked up mobic on the internet and noticed that its less serious side effects are what I currently have as symptoms. So if I keep taking it how do I to know if I am getting better or just having side effects??? So for now I have stopped taking it, and hope to see the rheumatologist soon.
Upon thinking back, some other things that I have noticed recently about a month ago I began having dandruff which I have never had before. The past few showers I have lost enough hair to stop the shower from draining correctly. It is not noticeable to me when looking in the mirror, and I do not know if it is related.
It’s now the 8th, and the 14th day of this stuff. I need my life back, and my daughter needs her mom back to normal! If you have any suggestions or ideas I would appreciate them.

It sounds almost exactly what I am going thru although my doctors keep telling me it's just stress and making me feel like I am making it up. Hope you find some relief and answers soon.

[Preschoolmom]

I will finally get to see a rheumatologist in the morning!

[tmoto]

PSM,
My son may be having similar symptoms. He's a very, very healthy 17 year old who is a very, very active athlete. Here's his timeline:

January 22nd - took him to doctor because he had a raging case of pink eye and also a fever. At that time, he had elbow and knee pain, right in the joints. A head cold had been festering so the doctor prescribed antibiotic drops for the pink eye and another antibiotic (pill). Walked around slowly and with a limp due to knee pain. Had developed a fever as high as around 102.

January 29th -- went back to doc. Pink eye had cleared up but a rash had developed. Really thought it was reaction to the antibiotic. Joint pain had eased (knee was significantly better but not 100%, elbow hurt a bit more and he'd developed neck pain). Doc advised to discontinue both drops and antibiotic. No fever.

Today -- rash has disappeared but joint pain continues. Knee still hurts some, elbow more and neck the most (pretty obvious whenever he turns since his whole torso turns instead of just turning his head). Doc told us to come back for blood test work if joint pain persisted so we are probably heading back today for blood tests.

[pjk0326]

I read your post and was compelled to join just to reply! Did you learn anything from the Rheumatologist?
I have an appointment for Thursday to see one for the first time. I too have had muscle/joint pain moving throughout my body for the last 5 months. I do not recall any rash and minor headaches just recently.
What started as shoulder pain (initially diagnosed as rotator cuff issue) progressed to pain in nearly every joint in my body!
Bloodwork indicated R Factor and underactive thyroid. Just had Lyme titer done, at my request and waiting for those results.
In the meantime, I am curious to hear what your rheumatologist had to say.
I would urge you to do some research on Lyme Disease - you have so many of the symptoms and the testing for it is very unreliable! There are also some excellent videos on YouTube from people who were diagnosed with LD. I am sure if you go there and do a search they will come up. One young girl talks in particular about being tested for LD and receiving a negative result, even though she eventually tested positive.
Best of luck - please let us know what your status is.
Pam

[Preschoolmom]

I saw the rheumatologist on the 2nd, and while he could not diagnose me until my blood tests came back. He did go ahead and prescribe me a low dose of Prednisone, which is a steroid. This has helped so much, and I feel like it has given me my life back. I had tried some other medicine for the pain, but it either was not affective or it would just knock me out. With the prednisone I have not had any noticable side effects, but the pain has dissapeared.

I finally got my blood test results back today! The doctor had tested me for everything immaginable and even stuff unimaginable (from HIV to Hepatitis to anemia even).
The only positive or abnormal result was for the Human Parvo virus (fifths disease)! I had two different doctors and the school nurse tell me that I could even get fifths disease because I was an adult and that if by a long shot I did get it then it would only last 3 to 7 days. One of these doctors even told me that there was no test for it, and the others didnt know! (BTW: I had the rheumatologist fax my results to them.)

Its amazing to me after watching several of the children at work who have had this and how little it seems to affect them. We have had 5-6 children to have it. They all got a rash (I only had a very slight rash), some children were worse than others, but rarely did the rash even itch. All of their cheeks had become very red at some point with it (mine never did), there was only a very low grade fever before the rash, but their seemed to be no other real symptomsin the children. Yet, my symptoms were nearly dabilitating!
The rheumatologist told me that this virus reacts very differently in adults, and like adult chickenpocks is so much worse. Unlike chickenpocks it is not potentially fatal and does not cause any long term damages to the body. In adults the joint pain can last up to a year, and seems to be worse for people who suffer from even mild anemia.
I am going back to the rheumatologist in a couple weeks. He wants to check on my joint pain, and discuss the possible duration of this virus along with treatment.

Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to reply and give advise! I hope that this insain journey of mine may help someone else to have a speedier recovery! (or at least know that there is a test for it!)

[Aedmundson]

I believe I have fifths disease...though symptoms have been lasting over two weeks. Extreme joint pain at times. Super red cheecks for two days..lace-like rash over arms, sometimes legs..comes and goes when it feels like it-is quite itchy. Three-day period of horrible head aches..very sore throat right now, and also bad joint pain right now. Was tested for arthiritis, thyroid, celiac all came out negative. Do you believe this is fifths disease? I'm a 16 yr old very active girl that just wants to get back to my sports but this chronic sickness and pain makes it tough to do that.

Could it be Lupus?

Originally Posted by mrs s

Could it be Lupus?

I have 5th disease and I can tell you that it is very painful. I feel that it is not taken seriously enough. I had a miscarriage as a result of catching fifth's from a student in my class. If you work with children, it is important that you are aware of the severity of the disease.

"WOW" I am a teacher as well and I am getting tested for Fifth disease as we speak.
The thing that bothers me is my doctor feels that this is very uncommon in adults, so I just did a battery of test for ex. Lyme, RA, CBC panels, and the Fifth disease test. My 8yr. old son is home with the classic slapped check look, and his 2nd grade teacher might be pregnant so we are very concerned to get our test back. How long did the joint pain last for you because I feel like I am 80 yrs old right now, and I am only 40.