For the past two or three weeks, I’ve been racking my brain but I just can’t figure this out.
I know that something other than MS is causing this inflammatory mischief in the body because it is so unlike my typical MS symptoms.
It actually feels like, and is presenting like a form of acute arthritis.

The joints in my hands and fingers are inflamed, swollen, painful and stiff. Over the last few days the inflammation has spread to both wrists and this morning the left side of my face/jaw is stiff and sore as well.
Digestion is also off although I’m still recovering from a rough patch of that so I don’t know if it is related.

Then the other day a 32 year old shoulder injury (fracture & dislocation) that hasn’t bothered me in years got woken up. The joint subluxated (nearly dislocated) when I put my weight on my elbow while getting out of bed. So now there is what feels like tendonitis/bursitis affecting that joint.

The joint symptoms are worse in the morning and I’ve been taking some aspirin (can’t tolerate much else), Epsom salt baths, and I have also been taking some anti-inflammatory type supplements (Serrapeptase, turmeric, anti-oxidants etc).

For a bit I thought that I had a handle on it because the joints seemed to be getting better, but for the last couple of days the symptoms have ramped up with a vengeance. That was preceded by two days of general body fatigue so I spent it mostly laying down and resting; which is unusual for me.
Apparently that wasn’t the thing to do because it allowed more inflammation and stiffness to settle in.

For the last few days I’ve been dropping things more but I don’t attribute that to the varying degrees of ongoing numbness because that has affected my hands for a long time.
Despite the numbness, I find myself trying to maneuver around not using one hand or another because of pain/dysfunction. Sounds odd to have both numbness and pain, but that is what is going on .

Now with the old shoulder injury added in, I’m really having trouble doing even everyday things because reaching behind me or moving the arm away from my body causes a sharp stab of pain in the joint and the muscles around the shoulder and upper back go into spasm. Moving it like that catches me off guard because otherwise the shoulder isn’t hurting; so I forget.
I’m being extra careful with it because the pain is reminiscent of when it was dislocated so many years ago, eventhough the joint itself seems to be stable now.

I tried a vegetable only diet for a few days and that did seem to settle things down so I think that it may be something that I’m consuming that is setting off some sort of an allergic/inflammatory reaction. I just haven’t been able to figure out what, because my food intake is fairly restricted to a plant based-blender diet as it is; and I haven’t changed or added anything that I can think of.
So today I’m going back to the vegetable only program and for the second time, will be methodically checking everything that I’ve been eating other than that.

Suggestions would be appreciated.

With love, Erika