Your situation sounds similar to mine…Have you been evaluated by a PT or physiatrist (physical medicine and rehab doctor) yet?

A few years ago, I got a very, very bad cold (must have been some kind of virus). I was sick for 2 weeks, then about a month later, I started having mysterious symptoms. It started with numbness and tingling in my legs, then a few months later I got diagnosed with runner’s knee (patellafemoral pain syndrome), and got sent to PT.

In PT, I developed tendon injuries in rapid succession: patellar tendinopathy in both knees, insertional Achilles tendinopathy in both heels, adductor strain, calf tear, IT band syndrome, quadriceps tendinopathy. This all happened within the span of 3 months.

I was seeing a physiatrist—they’re a good option because they look at things holistically and are trained in internal medicine and physical medicine (like with PT), and she realized in that amount of time, I should be seeing some improvement with PT, so she referred me to a rheumatologist.

Long story short: I got diagnosed with seronegative spondyloarthropathy. Seronegative = No elevated inflammatory markers in my blood tests—there are autoimmune conditions like this. It causes inflammation in the insertion points where tendons go into the bones causing joint and tendon pain.

Because it’s seronegative, one of the ways they diagnosis it is they prescribe high doses of NSAIDs (like Celebrex) to see if the pain significantly improves. And in general inflammatory (so autoimmune) arthritis gets worse at rest or in the morning but better with movement—that’s another clue if you think you may have what they call “morning stiffness.”

It’s often mistaken especially in active people as the usual overused tendinitis, only it doesn’t get better with the usual interventions.

I’m not saying that’s what you have, but you had asked if anyone had a similar experience, and I did… My care team suspects the virus triggered an autoimmune response, much like Long COVID does for some people. Even before the pandemic, it was well-known this could happen to people.

I’m not sure if you’ve tried PT yet or seem a physiatrist, but that may be a good place to start. They may be able to give insight in if you’ve had a cascade of injuries because of the original biomechanical issue/injury, central sensitization (nervous system gets hypersensitive to pain after injury) or may need to see a rheumatologist.

I don’t want to scare you off…but looking back at the years it took me to be diagnosed, I wish that someone would have told me so I’d at least know my options, because I knew intuitively something felt off but didn’t know who to go to or what to look for.

If it’s something you might suspect, you could also check out the Autoimmune group on Connect.