Lupus-like symptoms, but not Lupus

Bones, joints and muscles
1

I have dry eyes, when I bump my joint into something, it swells up and I dont have to bump it hard. I get eye strain extremely easily. I cant read without getting motion sickness. It takes me 2 days to watch a movie. I’m 44 years old, Asian male. it started in my early/mid 20s when clicking on a mouse made my finger hurt, finger tip, to my finger joint, to my elbow and sometimes my shoulder..

then I noticed that it didn’t matter which finger or which hand.

Then my knees started to hurt when I run or jog. So, I haven’t really been able to run since my 20s. I went to the gym and had to stop using teh treadmill and started on the ellyptical instead.

Also, when I sit for too long, my butt starts hurting, either the muscle on my butt cheeks or my lower back where teh tailbone is.

i went to a rheumatologist, she did some bloodwork and X rays done. She told me I have some inflammation, but it’s not something in her realm as a rheumatologist. She recommended seeing a geneticist in UCLA. Thats gonna be too expensive and too far away for me.

I need advise. I’ve used up almost all my savings account trying to find out what’s wrong with me. I’ve had MRIs on my head and abdomen, X Rays and some other things.

If anyone could point me in the right direction as this has been debilitating. Can’t read, can’t watch a movie, cant play a game without getting dizzy. I just sit in my chair and wait to go to work.

1 Like
2

It sounds similar to what I’ve been experiencing but I’m a lot older than you. I also started to complain about my health in my early twenties.

For me when I’m under stress or overly anxious I experience a lot of pain.
Both physically and mentally.
I experience less pain when not stressed or anxious.

In terms of any inflammation you need to re-evaluate your diet. Diet plays a very important role in both physical and mental health.

I have IBS and also lactose intolerant.

All my life I have been eating the wrong foods until two years ago. For years I suffered from constipation and sometimes although not diarrhoea my stool was loose. After so many years of this and numerous tests, they finally found above normal Calprotectin in my stool.

Even after this I was told they couldn’t tell me why the Calprotecton was high in my stool. This was inflammation in my gut. I took matters into my own hands by researching inflammation in the gut.

I decided that I had to cut out certain foods in my diet. When I did this, my mental health improved, the Calprotecton went down to normal, inflammation in my joints improved and my overall health improved.

From time to time I get the aches and pains again but because I’m aware of the link between food and inflammation I know it’s the food that I have recently had.

So what I’m saying is that mental heath is linked to gut health. In order that you improve on your symptoms - I suggest that you change your diet. It won’t be easy but as you go through it; you’ll know which foods cause the most problems for you. Start there and I believe that you’ll see some improvement.

If you take sugar you might want to keep your eye on what happens when you’ve consumed this.

Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.

I am constantly improving myself. But the most important thing is that I know that gut health and mental health are linked. And if you’re not nourishing yourself with the right nutrients be prepared to experience inflammation in your gut, your body, and including mental health issues.

For the dry eyes I hope that you do use eye drops to help. But make sure that you remain hydrated each day.And hopefully, it won’t get worse. Also you may want to cut down on the screen time to help alleviate any eye strain.

If you decide to start with your diet do give us an update.

Best wishes

3

I’ve changed my diet, cut down on sugar and carbs. I’ve lost 20 pounds. I can’t seem to find a correlation to anything. Sleep seems to help a little bit.

Eye movement seems to make me dizzy.

4

I don’t think it’s just the joints. I get bed sore easily. Like my arm is sore from sleeping on my side. I can’t sleep a full 8 hours. I keep turning over from side to side from the soreness of either arm and my back.

I take Vitamin D3 10k IU with vitamin K2
Fish Oil/Omega 3
Metroprolol Tartrate
Omeprazole for my hiatal hernia 20mg

5

Hi again,

Because you’ve said Lupus symptoms but not Lupus and the dry eyes as well.

Do you experience dry mouth also?

If the answer is yes then maybe ask your GP to test you for Sjogren’s Syndrome. Or you can research this and see if it might apply to you.

Sjögren’s syndrome somehow is overlooked because it is hard to detect because the symptoms are similar to Lupus. It can take many years to diagnose that’s if you’re lucky.

After my own research and symptoms I asked my then GP to test me for it and tested positive.

It’s an autoimmune disease and there’s no cure and can only be managed. If not managed properly it can impact the eyes , saliva glands, kidneys, internal organs etc.

There’s no harm in asking your doctor to test you for it.

Fibromyalgia could also cause joints, muscle aches and pains. Ask to be tested for both. They are conditions for a Rheumatologist.

6

Yeah the Rheumatologist said I dont have arthritis or Sjogrens

I saw on the bloodwork that she also had me test for lupus

I wonder if I’ll feel better if the doctor gives me general anti inflammation prescription meds