well I am 1 years since my first encounter with chronic pain where I felt like I was dying. It looks to be reactive arthritis although I have not been diagnosed yet my specialist said that's what it looks like.
Seems that I had contracted a bacterial infection some years ago which may have been the actual trigger to this disease. I do not have the gene but I guess when someone grabed my neck around the time I had the bacterial infection (I actually contracted food poisoning)
I had treatment for the bacterial infection after my neck had been squeezed by someone.
this grabing the neck cause a massive shooting pain from my cervical right into what felt like my rectum or sacroiliac joint possibly. but it was horrible at the time and made my neck stiff for days. I also had a wierd feeling like the world had just fell on top of me. although I never screamed or yelled, I sat there shocked so no one really knew what had happened at work. I just went home sick so the other guy didn't get fired. I just thought I had a neck problem at the time.
I then recovered until I would throw my neck out severely every 3 months or so. This was very livable and I could still work most of the time.
Then one day I had a sever incredible pain in my chest which I thought was a heart attack (dizzy, very sick) as I went to the hospital. I started to struggle to breath and they found heart palpations. They sent me to a bigger hospital and they said I was too young to have a heart attack and sent me home. I had it for about a week then it went away all of a sudden. I went and traveled Europe
I had no problems besides knee problems but other than that I had a great time. I think the active traveling kept me into remission as I backpacked for 3 months.
I then needed a knee reconstruction as my knee crunched at cricket year or so later. this may have been due to this disease (not sure). mind you I always had reoccurring neck stiffness (throwing it out) that went away after a while. but started to get worse and worse. I was in remission most of my time which was not bad because I got relief.
then of a total of 3 years I started suffer from flu like pain or some weird sick feeling, I thought it was my friends house or the air. I really did not consider I had anything infectious.
Then my problem started into light to mild headaches which panadols could solve. I also started to get upper back pain and even heavy shoulders, and just general feeling unwell. But this was nothing serious at this stage for me as I just kept living it up.
Then I started to get sick of these neck problems and thought I better go see somebody to fix this problem as I was taking up boxing and cricket, rugby union ect, I loved to play sport and played all my life,
surgeon who told me I had discophytic change and needed to go see a physio. I think I mentioned this earlier but as you can see I was way off track
I could have never guessed it was a rare disease that had probably been progressed by disc mobilization technique on my cervical where the guy grabed my neck. I also noticed alcohol made my condition progress further as It created bowel troubles which is associated with reactive arthritis.
After the physio pushed on my neck I have never been the same and I am now on anti inflammatory which make my life a lot better in terms of wide spread constant pain. I still cannot sit but I can do alot more in terms of moving. I also had nexium for stomache ulcers.
I am so much happier I don't need to smoke weed because I found a doctor to help me lol I worked out why weed was the best answer at the time is because it is a anti inflammatory. but I would not advice it unless you have no other option. the anti inflammatory don't help completely but they help. I quit weed so I can find the energy to fight this disease which i have. I started light 5 kg weights, core work, light boxing, swimming.
This has helped build my confidence but at times I am still very scared because I am always in constant pain and cant walk stand or sit very well. I am re enrolled to finish university and pray I will get better or otherwise I am just going to have to deal with the hand I was dealt.
I was still trying to work out why I cannot sit down very long even with medications. (it is better than it was) I was thinking maybe I had prostateitis or some inflammation somewhere that the meds dont work because a lot of practitioners seem to believe I should be able to sit down and the pain is in my head. I am sick of people telling me its in my head even before I got treatment they told me that.
anyway If anyone has prostatitis or reactive arthritis,. my job requires 8 hours of sitting so I need to be as fit as possible for my career. I cannot even sit to have a meal without having to alternate with standing. people look at me like I am so weird they just cant understand why I stand and eat.
some friends get impatient with me and can't handle the not sitting part as socialising seems to be about sitting a lot of the time. I never realised how much we need to sit its actually so amazed at how unhealthy office careers are if you sit all the time but it is required, and no one will employ me if I need to recline back. I just feel so isolated because no body seems to relate with my problems. I am getting stronger but it has just been so long now.
I am just wondering how many people deal with spine pain and dont relate it with some form of auto immune disease? because I didn't realize for over 3 years until it got so bad I haven't worked for over a year.
just wish I had realized before it had been progressed so far that now it is in nearly every joint and stomache ect. So hopefully this may help some person to find the correct specialist earlier. because this disease can be very mild or very severe depending. also symptoms vary greatly so make sure you research or see a doctor before jumping to conclusions like myself
Its hard not to when you are trying to find what is making you sick.
good luck to anyone suffering from any pain or sickness and to make sure you keep living every day as happy as possible.
I try to trick myself by saying pain and suffering are 2 different things. you can have pain and suffer, or you can just have pain. to be honest your just going to suffer less if your happier and do your best to forget about it. its the only solution if you cannot cure or fix something I believe
peace and take care