Kel, not entirely sure what's going on with my hip - it's kind of a long story but here goes. Back in early 2010 I started having hip pain (right hip) so I went to my GP. He did x-rays and diagnosed me as having mild arthritis, but he wasn't able to identify what type. He sent me to an orthopedic surgeon, who was not able to figure it out either - he was used to seeing extremely obese people with severely damaged joints, so he didn't really know what to do with someone who was thin and only had very mild hip damage - he did say he saw "slight changes" in my hip but he also said that most people are not 100% symmetrical and he couldn't even tell if it was natural slight asymmetry or if it was mild arthritis. So then I went to physical therapy which went pretty well. I really liked my physical therapist, and she was able to reduce my pain by quite a lot with some gentle strengthening & stretching exercises. Around that time, my presumed IBD went into remission (everything is presumed with me, nothing's been firmly diagnosed except for my GERD!). When the guts quieted down, the hip followed suit. I started exercising regularly as I was going into remission, and the hip and guts both stayed mostly quiet for about 2 years.
But then last winter (winter of 2012-2013), the hip pain came back. Then a few months later in the spring of 2013 I fell out of remission, so once again both the guts and the hip were acting up. I went back to my GP, who did another x-ray which he said showed mild arthritis in both hips, but again, he couldn't determine what type of arthritis. My GP then referred me to rheumatology in an attempt to get more answers about my hip. My rheumatologist did an MRI which he said showed no inflammatory arthritis (but my GP told me that the rheumatologist's notes say possible sacro-iliac arthritis?). The rheumy ended up being kind of worthless and he said I should follow up with my GP. I was like, no, you're the specialist, my GP sent me to you! So I saw the rheumy once more, in August of last year I think, and he said he has no idea what's wrong with my hip. But then he said, a steroid injection shouldn't do any harm and could help, so he could try that. I agreed and he did 2 steroid injections. I ended up having hideous side effects for about 3 weeks afterwards - increased hip pain, worse reflux, nausea, massive fatigue. My worthless rheumy said I shouldn't be having side effects, he once again had no idea what waas going on with me, and he again said I should follow up with my GP. Sigh! So I just dealt with the side effects, they eventually went away, and for awhile I did feel some mild relief from the injections. They've worn off now though and I'm back to having pain off and on again.
So yeah, I have arthritis probably maybe, but nobody seems to be able to tell me more than that. All I know is, jogging makes it incredibly painful very quickly, within just a few minutes. Weather also has a profound effect on it, very bitter cold weather makes it ache and snow or rain storms can make it sharply painful - the bigger/nastier the storm is, the worse my hip pain is. Last year a blizzard was coming in and it was the worst hip pain I had ever felt, it sort of spilled over into my other hip and my lower back, everything in that area was just massively painful. When it gets bad enough, I limp. I own several canes and walking sticks because the pain can come out of nowhere at times.
My theory is that I have some sort of IBD and that I also have some sort of arthritis that is related to the IBD. I'm 34 and my GP says I'm too young for wear-and-tear type arthritis. He's puzzled, I'm puzzled, every specialist I've been to has been puzzled. It's pretty much the same story with my IBD - I have had multiple tests including repeat colonoscopies & upper endoscopies, but nothing ever shows up on tests. Yet I respond really well to IBD meds including pred and Entocort, which all my doctors agree those wouldn't work on "IBS" but they would work on IBD. So I have a tentative diagnosis of presumed IBD, and possible presumed arthritis. But whatever is wrong with me, it has been hiding really well for quite some time now!
That's why I'm almost proud of my GERD - it showed up on tests like a champ.
I had a test where they put an NG tube in me for 24 hours to monitor my reflux - how acidic it is, how high in my throat it goes, how many episodes I have, etc. I was nearly off the charts, I had 48 separate episodes in 24 hours, and half of those episodes reached the top of my throat. When I'm lying down/sleeping, I reflux more often than not. My longest single episode of reflux was over 5 hours long, and that's just one of 48 episodes! So it was definitely confirmed, I have severe GERD. Of course, there is still a bit of a mystery, because they don't know why it's so severe and why it isn't particularly responsive to medications (I take 40 mg of Nexium, 2x 300 mg of Zantac, and as many Tums as needed per day, and that just barely keeps things under control - I still need to avoid trigger foods like acidic or spicy or fried things, and I can't do too many abdominal exercises in one workout or my reflux will still go haywire).
Sorry, I said that was going to be long! But yeah, that's it in a very large nutshell.
