Looking for a sanity check?
Hi! I’m a 28F and the long story short is I’ve realized recently that I might have something rheumatological. I’m looking for a sanity check — if this sounds like something I should pursue a referral and rheumatology consult for, or if I’m truly just injury prone and unlucky lol. For some context, I’m normal weight/on the smaller side, and always have been:
- At 17 years old, the back of my right heel became red, swollen, and painful. Good old Google told me it was “pump bump”… even though my shoes had been broken in months ago. Hurt a LOT to have any pressure on it. Developed the same on the left side. No running or anything that explained this, so I thought it must have been the shoes. It resolved on its own after like… 1-2 years? Now that I’m in healthcare, I realize the spot was where the Achilles inserts into the heel.
- lots of random tendon injuries over the years that didn’t make sense (I just seemed so injury prone). For example, i ran *slightly* longer one week and boom, suddenly I had quad tendinitis. Another time, I fell and injured my right shoulder, stopped lifting due to this, but soon after, developed tendinitis in my left rotator cuffs as well.
- developed SI joint pain in both sides 5 years ago. At the time, I was running a lot, so it seemed to make sense? But it would flare on and off over the years, even as I reduced my activity. It also wouldn’t be consistent - sometimes on the left, sometimes on the right. Pain has been constant through since I got sick a few months ago with some respiratory virus (no GI symptoms).
- also started having more lower back pain and stiffness over the years. Chalked it up to scoliosis and getting old. I feel so stiff especially in the morning/after prolonged sitting. My physiotherapist has noticed that my range of motion has decreased over the years.
- foot pain that I thought was normal/running related, but even when I’m not running, I can’t stand for more than like 20-30mins without pain in my heels and forefoot, and feeling like I’m walking on pebbles. It’s especially bad in the morning.
- Figured out that my “stubborn eczema” might actually be psoriasis (saw a patient with psoriasis and realized - hey that looks exactly like my neck rash) but haven’t seen a derm yet
Sorry for the wall of text! But yeah, I’m in training in healthcare lol and what made all of this click is I did a rotation in rheumatology - but I’m not sure if this is just me being a typical healthcare trainee, or if there is something.
I did get some bloodwork and SI joint xrays done - bloodwork was all normal (including HLA, inflammatory markers, ANA, RF), and X-rays were read as normal.
Would appreciate any input!!!