i'm new to the group - please read

[Guest guest]

hi, i'm new to the group and was just wondering if anyone can relate

to my experiences with what the doctors say is reactive

arthritis/rieter's syndrome. I have never met anyone with a similar

condtion, and i have not found the doctors here (UK) particularly

sympathetic. I know this e-mail looks long, but i would really

appreciate it if even just one person could tell me they have had

similar experiences....

I began to be ill in november 2002, when i experienced severe

urethritis, which i assumed to be just an attack of cystitis, but

within 5 hours i had a fever of 42° and could hardly move my arms

and legs since my joints were so painful. I called out the doctor,

who thought i had a kidney infection. The fever disappeared after 4-

5 days, and i was back to normal within about 2 weeks.

However, a week after i was better, exactly the same thing happened

again, this time with even worse joint pains and a very high fever –

i couldn't move my knee and elbow joints, and i was taken into

hospital. The doctors were a bit hopeless to be honest, and didn't

know what was wrong with me, so they just gave me painkillers and

antibiotics. However, i made a full recovery after several weeks,

and carried on as normal. In the following weeks the joint pains

began to recur, and in may 2003 i got problems with inflammation and

infection in my ears and eyes (i had never had any ear or eye

problems in the past), and my ear drums kept perforating, so i had

to have an operation to have gromets fitted.

Then in june i had another attack of the fever and severe joint

pains – exactly the same pattern as before, starting with the

urethritis, but this time was the worst, and i could not stand or

weightbear for at least a month. I have been suffering ever since

with eye soreness, terrible muscle pains, particularly in my back,

joint pains, and generally feeling poorly. One day i will feel

quite normal, and the next i will be so weak and exhausted i can

hardly lift my arms. The worst thing is the urethritis, which is

there all the time, and it feels like my insides are burning.

I was eventually diagnosed with reiters syndrome in july of this

year, but the doctors are so unsympathetic, and do not seem to

understand the condition at all. What's worse is that i have no

swelling or redness in the joints, so my rheumatologist does not

take me seriously at all, and has even tried to make me see a

phsycologist! I also have these episodes where my heart beats

really really fast for no apparent reason for quite a long time, but

the doctors have told me this is stress, and i am sure it is not.

Can anyone relate to this sequence of events? Also, does anyone

living in the uk know of any doctors who take this seriously? I

really feel i am not being treated properly. The only person who

has tried to help is my gp, who has prescribed me vioox for the

pain, and antiobiotics for the urethritis – niether of which really

help.

Please reply!

Regards to all,

Helen, 22, UK