Tendon pain and muscle ache

Posted by anagharavi17 @anagharavi17, Jan 2, 2025

Hi,
I am a 26y female and have been experiencing tendinopathy like symptoms bilaterally on many of the tendons. It started with pain on the patellar tendon a few years ago which has been nagging me since.
This year, I decided to lose weight and started with a calorie deficit diet and brisk walking for about 3 months. I over-exercised a lot, brisk walking for 9-10 kms daily. Also did strength training home workouts for my arms with a 3 kg dumbbell for 2-3 times a week. I did lose about 5 kilos, but the knee pain had increased a lot. One day, I fell sick, just fever no other symptoms of cold/cough. I also passed out apparently while trying to stand up and had tremendous sweating when I woke up a few mins later. I took a paracetamol and the fever vanished within a day.
About a month later, I started experiencing a sharp pain behind the elbow and tricep muscle pain on both hands. Straightening the hand caused a sharp pain near the elbow. I have doing tricep stretching and cross friction massages for this but there has been not much improvement. To avoid placing my elbows on the bed, I would put my arms overhead during night while sleeping. A month later or so, I have been experiencing a sharp prickly pain on the back of the shoulder and the edge of arm and a lot of cracking/popping sounds from my shoulders ever for a 15 degree movement of my arms. Its being very difficult to sleep on the back/side. Again have been doing shoulder stretches for this with no reduction in pain. A few days ago, I started feeling a burning sensation on the ankle on both legs which gets worse while climbing down stairs, although I have been doing calf stretches for a long time now.

I have got MRI scans for my knee and elbow and both came out normal as per orthopedic doctors.

Treatments considered
-took anti-inflammatory tablets like ibuprofen and pain killers but no improvement in pain
-stretches at home for quads, hamstrings, calf, triceps, shoulder
- PT for my knees with low impact strengthening exercises like wall squats but doing this only increased the pain for me.
- Ayurveda and anti-inflammatory diet
- Got my vitamin and mineral tests done, vitamin D and C were quite low and corrected them with supplements.
- consulted a couple of rheumatologists and got some blood tests done. ESR, CRP, RA factor, HLA-B27 and all came out negative for any autoimmune diseases.
-tried a high protein, vitamin C rich diet for collagen production and collagen supplementation.
- got a PRP injection for the patellar tendon a month before and the knee pain seems to have reduced a little.

I'm very confused about what my diagnosis is in so many places and I'm really scared if I have injured so many tendons. I'm not sure if the fever I had played any part in this. It's not just pain, but a lot of popping sounds from my shoulder and elbow which I never really experienced as frequently. Could this really be tendinopathy in all these places and I'm really confused about the line of treatment and its order. I feel like I have brought this upon myself and feel so much regret for over exercising every single day. I know tendons are very slow to heal but its been nearly 6 months of such a situation and its really starting to affect me mentally. Has anyone had similar experiences here?

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I have similar symptoms with a known family history of psoriasis/psoriatic arthritis. So my diagnosis is psoriatic arthritis without psoriasis and ankylosing spondylitis. Treatment has been biologic medication. Unfortunately, each one has only worked for a few months before the pain returns. Getting ready to start a new one so fingers crossed this will be the one that gives relief for an extended period of time.

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