Question: I can't figure out why I have all of these symptoms: the sides of my thighs are sore and tender again, my knees are red and the left one burns, my thighs are blotchy, my elbows are a little pink and burn a tad and I'm very tired. Any ideas?

Thanks for your followup, Dr. Naval. Here are the answers to your questions:

1. I have had symptoms since March 2013, and they have progressed. Last XXXXXXX an xray showed mild arthritis in my left hip. Now it is bone on bone and the orthopedist says I need a hip replacement.

2. Yes, it's painful to get up from the floor but not the toilet. My pain moves around, which is why my regular doctor and orthopedists have a hard time diagnosing it. For several month, the sides of the thighs were tender and sore. Then I had pain when I stood or walked for a while and I would have to sit down. Around November, 2014, my sciatic or sacroiliac nerve was involved and I had pain down the back of the buttocks and thigh. The knees would also burn (mostly left knee) and at times the sides of the shins were painful, too. I noticed my elbows are sometimes pinkish red and burn very slightly. Both knees were red and both my thighs were blotchy. My rheumatologist said she didn't know what it was from.

3. No fever/weight loss/appetite loss, but I had gotten an open red sore on the lower part of my right shin the size of a nickel in Feb. 2013. I had rented ice skates and the upper edge of the boot rubbed against my bare skin scraping the outer skin off and leaving a red sore. I cleaned the wound when I got home a couple hours later and kept Neosporin on it for 8 days, but it wasn't closing up. I went to the dr. on the 9th day when it was becoming red around the edges. They tested for MRSA, but it came back negative, possibly due to my using neosporin. They prescribed a sulfur drug, but I thought I had a rash from it (not positive, but my skin was faintly blotchy in places), so discontinued it. I used colloidal silver on it and it healed up after a couple of months. This was before most of the pain started. Before that, I had only some stiffness when getting up from a chair and walking or pain in ankles when turning quickly during Jazzercize. (I had to quit Jazzercize in the winter.) Then, in XXXXXXX the pain on the sides of the thighs caused me to go to my dr. that XXXXXXX He diagnosed it as bursitis and prescribed naproxen (500 mg. 2 x a day).

4. My eyes are slightly dry in the morning but not during the day. I use contacts so don't know if any dryness is from them. I used to have a dry mouth, but I think it was a side effect of vanlafaxine XR (450 mg./day...a very high dose). It also caused me to be very warm much of the time. I don't have the dry mouth any more and even if I'm still slightly warm most of the time, my hands and sometimes feet are now cold sometimes. My average temp. is 96.6.

5. I went to a rheumatologist in Dec. and blood work showed I tested positive for SSA and ANA. The dr. said she couldn't be sure of what type of autoimmune disease I may have as I didn't have symptoms of lupus or RA. Rather than start on plaquenol, I decided to try natural means to try to reduce inflammation. The dr. agreed that this was fine. I met with a certified nutritionist and then a dr. of functional medicine in March. The nutritionist told me to take 1 tsp. l-glutamine in water 4 x a day (empty stomach) to heal the leaky gut, 1 tsp. colloidal silver to kill any pathogens or Lyme disease (I tested negative on the usual test, but have read that the western blot is the only test that diagnoses it when it's been in your body for a while because the bacteria changes shape and the test doesn't pick that up), a probiotic, and serrapeptase (120,000), a proteolytic enzyme (for inflammation).

The functional doctor has me taking a "medical food" called "UltraInflamX Plus 360" from Metagenics 3x/day, cinnamon capsules (I have diabetes type 2; recent A1C was 5.7), fish oil capsules, and 1 tsp. cod liver oil each day. I also take my regular supplements: calcium, magesium glycinate, D3, K2 (all 4 for bone help; I have osteopenia and osteoporosis), a multi-vitamin/mineral, CoEnzyme Q10 (I take 10 mg. lipitor for high cholesterol, which depletes the CoQ10), turmeric for inflammation, Vit. C, chrominum, and Glucosamine/Chondroitin, MSM.

6. Forgetfulness has plagued me for years. Sleep is usually ok, though pain can wake me up sometimes, when it flares up. Other times, I don't feel pain when sleeping.

7. Rheumatologist did a lot of blood work. In January, I had an EMG nerve conduction study, which showed normal bilateral lower extremities and lumbar paraspinals. I did have brisk patellar reflexes and 1-2 beats of clonus bilaterally. I also had 3 MRIs (thoracic, cervical, and lower spine), and xrays of hips/pelvis and knees.

Hello Dr. Naval,
Thank you again for your comments.

My Vit D levels were 39 in Oct. 2014.

You said you don't think I have a major disease, but it says "? AutoImmune Disorder" at the top of your response page. If I tested positive for SSA and ANA, does that mean I do have an autoimmune disorder, even if I don't show typical symptoms of one?

My left hip joint is now bone on bone (after having only mild arthritis in XXXXXXX 2014.) Could that be from regular osteoarthritis or would it more likely be from rheumatoid arthritis. (My rheumatologist said I don't have RA, Lupus, or Sjogrens). Because of the burning pain in my knees, I thought it might be from RA. The knees are red at times. Would regular osteoarthritis feel like a burning pain and cause redness in the knees? They are not warm and I don't have a fever. That's why I wonder if it's from RA.

Could the knee pain be from the bone on bone hip?

Also, my outer shins start hurting when my knees hurt. Could this be from hip?

Thank you again.

I appreciate your help.

Dr. Naval,

I uploaded 2 more photos of my red knees and blotchy thighs from this morning. They are redder than the photos I sent last night. Not sure if you can see the difference.

Thank you.