Question
I have had severe joint pain in hands, back, neck, hips, and knees for several years and am 24 years old.

My doctor was pretty convinced that it was a rheumatologic problem (due to many things like canker sores, UTIs, frequent headaches, kidney infections, face rashes, etc) and did a very extensive blood workup for diagnostic purposes. He also immediately pyt me on a Medrol Dosepak.

He said if the tests came back negative and the Medrol didn't work, then it was likely fibromyalgia and he would start me on antidepressant therapy to see if that helped.

The blood tests were all returned normal, but the Medrol helped IMMENSELY! Is it still possible to have a rheumatologic disease with all normal blood work? Is fibromyalgia able to be helped so dramatically with Medrol? What kinds of rheumatological conditions can be helped by Medrol that may be overlooked on blood work? He was pretty strongly concerned about lupus (so was I) but with a negative blood workup, is this still a possibility?

Any opinions or information would be appreciated! Thanks!

Answer
CCara,

I am always sorry to hear of anyone suffering with the severe symptoms that you are suffering but especially when it is someone as young as you.

There are several questions here I will try and address them all. If I miss something please feel free to contact me again.

Before I get started, I hope you are seeing a rheumatologist. They are better equipped to diagnose complicated rheumatic conditions and fibromyalgia than a family doctor.

About lupus, it is possible that you can have lupus without symptoms showing up in your blood work but it is very unlikely. It depends on the specific blood work done. I assume since the doctor was looking for lupus then that all the appropriate test were run. This does not mean that it can be completely ruled out but it means you can put it at the bottom of your concern list.

Seronegative is a term doctors use to describe conditions that should have some standard markers in things like blood work that should have these markers but don't. Lupus is seldom in this category. Other Rheumatic contains like Rheumatoid Arthritis and Psoriatic arthritis can fall into this category. These two conditions can fall into this category 10 to 15 percent of the time.

Medrol is a steroidal anti-inflammatory. It is not usually used to treat fibromyalgia but since fibromyalgia has an inflammatory component it is possible that it could help. Fibromyalgia is a condition the effects primarily muscles and not joints but it can cause joint pain. I am not aware of it ever causing rashes.

I am happy that the Medrol has helped. I wish it could be a cure. Stay firm with your doctors until you get an accurate diagnosis. It is better to treat what you know that just the symptoms.

I wish you much improved health. I hope it OK that I pray for you today.

Rusty Ford
http://arthritis-symptom.com