Diagnosis of Reiter's Syndrome

After three more miscarriages, we finally got pregnant and started back on the Progesterone pills, and we were able to carry our second baby to full term.  Again the pain left while pregnant, and I slept great, and walked as if nothing was wrong with me.

Auto immune diseases go away while pregnant, now I know, and gets worse after each pregnancy.  I nursed my baby past 12 weeks, but the pain came back pretty much to the day.  It came on slow, and quickly got worse than it had been.  My right hip hurt so bad, I wanted to cry every time I moved.  My left knee started to swell, and had a lot of pain.  My middle toe on my right foot was swollen and looked oddly huge, and the bottom of my feet hurt so bad to stand on.  Any pressure on them was agonizing.    

The doctors in my home town took blood tests and saw that my inflammation levels were extremely high, and I was showing positive for Lupus which I clearly did not have.  I knew someone with Lupus and I did not have any of her symptoms.  They also thought I had Rheumatoid Arthritis, yet all my signs proved it wrong.  My joints never hurt once.  There was not a Rheumatalogist in my home town, so I made an appointment with one 5 hours away that my doctor had recommended, Dr. Gremillion.

Finally a breakthrough!  This doctor took my blood and examined my symptoms, and put it all in a computer data base, and lone behold my diagnosis popped up.  

Reiter's Syndrome is a rare form of Rheumatoid Arthritis that attacks the connective tissue, and is only found in the lower part of the body, and zig zags across the body like mine did.  I guess I needed every symptom in order for it to be diagnosed.