Friday, June 11, 2010

I Like No Answers

Relief, relief, relief.  That's what I felt this morning after I met with my Rheumatologist.

I left for my appointment expecting some answers, and the only answer I really got was that nothing showed up on my MRI.  This is not a bad answer, but doesn't fully explain why as I type this entry, the joints in my hands are stiff and sore.  But I don't really care, because he said the MRI, the blood tests, and the X-Rays are not showing anything wrong (other than a slight case of anemia).

The doc said that it could be my hormones adjusting after all these years of pregnancy and breastfeeding (my initial theory), or it could be the beginnings of Osteoarthritis.  I am going to go with hormones adjusting, thank you very much.

I have a list of things to be on the look out for, like funky stuff with my eyes, weird white patches on my skin, and another thing you don't really want to know about.  All these issues are directly related to autoimmune diseases.  But other than that, I'll head back in for a check up in December.  Now that's good news for a Friday!

If any of you know of anyone who has experienced joint stiffness/pain after child rearing/weaning from breastfeeding, feel free to share their stories because this is something you don't hear about that often, and the medical community doesn't seem to be very "in the know."

3 comments:

Meaghan said...

Hey check out this thread full of mommy's dealing with various types of joint pain postpartum. http://www.urbanmamas.com/urbanmamas/2007/02/postpartum_join.html

This comment seems particularly relevent to your situation.

"i got it really bad in my hands...they ached and burned at the end of the day, i'd just hold them in my lap they hurt so bad. i thought for sure the hormones triggered arthritis, if that's even possible, but there was no other explanation for the pain. i took glucosamine/chondroitin and they were 100% better in a couple months.
definitely check the bottle, there are so many different dosages out there. some say take it 2-3 times a day, there's double and triple strength...such a game figuring all that out."

Meaghan said...

Sorry the link got cut off.

http://www.urbanmamas.com/urbanmamas/2007/02
/postpartum_join.html

(you might have to type the last part in as I had to put a break in the link for it all to show up.)

Kimberly said...

yay I am glad everything is okay!!!