This may be a long-shot, but I think something still worth asking, V-DubChick:

Have you had a HLA-B27 test?

I heard nearly the same as you and at nearly the same age; when my spinal probs. had progressed terribly, my rheumatologist referred me to a psychiatrist because he (rheumy.) had wanted to chalk everything up to psychogenic whatever. $700 later and... hmmm, psychiatrist didn't discern signs of psychogenic whatever. And... the physical probs. persisted.

Advance some years, and a doc-friend suggested that my doctors order the testing for HLA-B27. I had the tale-tell indicators for Ankylosing Spondylitis or AS. Sure enough, the lab test came back positive. My doctors, either not wanting to believe or hoping to dismiss it, order a repeat on the test. Again, positive.

I think that, at times, and depending on the doctor(s), age (or youth) can be a detriment to accurate dx. Some of the tests that docs would not hesitate to order for some are just not considered for all - with like symptoms. Too, sometimes, it takes a periodic repeat on tests for the tests/results to actually display the things that enable doctors to make an accurate differential dx. (Take sed rate testing, for instance.)

Thanks to all the diddling around my doctors did - for about a decade - my spine is total crap, and I'm disabled. I both loathe and love my w.chair (because it does provide for more independence). But, if I had my way, I wish that the docs would have been more astute and ordered the darn'd test that is one of the main staples in dx'ing AS.


Keep on those doctors. Some times, it takes guiding them so that they believe it is their idea to order appropriate films, etc.