UCTD and damaged tendons/ligaments

If your tendons and ligaments are inflamed that is related to several types of arthritis and autoimmunity. Enthesitis can be documented with ultrasound and does not show on regular X-rays until it is advanced. Important to confer
with your rheumatologist before surgery and have your orthopedist review your history and lab with them.

As @seniormed mentioned, inflammation of the tendons and ligaments could be a symptom of many different conditions…

I’m not very familiar with undifferentiated connective tissue disease, but from what I searched, I didn’t really see that mentioned. I have seronegative spondyloarthropathy, and a hallmark symptom of it is enthesitis (inflammation at the insertion points where the tendons go into the bone at the joints).

It sort of sounds like something that can be mistaken for UCTD or vice versa because inflammation of the tendons wouldn’t be visible on imaging (except ultrasound, sometimes) for years after having joint damage. And I have the seronegative variety which means my inflammatory markers are not elevated. I just have the pain. At the beginning, it’s often mistaken for being a tendon overuse injury.

Can you ask your rheumatologist if it may be related to your current diagnoses?

Oh, thank you, @seniormed !
You know it only occurred to me lately that the 2 could be related.
I will try to get through to rheumatologist, but It takes a long time and my time is short now

Yes, I can ask and will.
Too bad I just thought of it!

So hard to get ahold of a rheumatologist, right? >_< I can’t really ask in-depth questions like that in the portal, and unless it’s urgent, I kind of just have to stick with my regular follow-up schedule.

Seems like a good question to ask, because it could be related, or if it may suggest a different condition, the treatment might be different. i.e. I started with Enbrel and now take Humira. Hope you get your answers in time and continue to find your way to relief!

@yellowdoggirl1 Sounds like you have a lot on your plate right now. Besides talking with the rheumatologist, I would also suggest talking with the orthopedic surgeon. If your tendons and ligaments are inflamed, that could interfere with the surgery and proper healing. Orthopedic surgeons have tempers and they would hate to think that there was a problem that could have been avoided if they had been told. Now, the surgeon isn’t going to know all the specifics of autoimmune disease, so it’s up to you to educate him/her about the inflammation.
Did this same surgeon do your previous surgeries?

@becsbuddy, thank you!
Yes, same surgeon as last time. I did tell about the UCTD, and the other autoimmune things. That surgery went fine, I did all the exercises and healed quickly. My rheumatologist has a Fellow who usually answers through the patient portal pretty quickly so I think I will start that way.

Hello @becsbuddy!Funny I reread the story about the person with the shoulder surgery upcoming and the other problems and thought it sounded like me, and it was me. Since then I have had the surgery and well into recovering thanks for doing all the painful exercises and I'm going to see the rheumatologist in a week and a half. Unfortunately for me it will be a new Fellow so it will take a long time and we will only go over what is of interest to them, I suppose.
I still have questions about the other tendons and ligaments and inflammation and that will be my opportunity to ask. In the interim I was hospitalized for 3 days with terrible abdominal pain and infection, fever, and bad lab results showing problems with liver pancreas etc. It turned out I needed my gallbladder out which I had done before the shoulder surgery so I am now better all over. Hallelujah
Next I will find out what the rheumatologist says.
Thank you, everyone, for thinking about this!
@yellowdoggirl