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Are these health/pain issues anything to worry about, or am I just getting old?

Asked by augustlan (47745points) August 30th, 2013

This is going to be really long. I’m so sorry!

My new (developed over the last couple of years) pains and symptoms:

Bleeding under the skin (petechiae and purpura). The little dots are always there, the bigger purpura happen when I do something as small as scratch an itch on my arm. My doc knows about this one, and didn’t seem too worried about it, but it’s disconcerting.

Bouts of uncontrollable trembling in my hand(s) and weakness in my arm(s).

Several types of “symmetrical” pain, which I’ve never experienced before.
>> Agonizing foot and leg cramps that occur simultaneously in both my right and my left feet/legs. They start in the bottom of my feet, and shoot their way up the front side of my legs, just to the outside of the shin bone.
>> Lower abdominal pain. Feels like something inside me is twisting itself into a knot. Can occur in one side, both sides, or one side followed by the other side. Happens suddenly, when I move the wrong way or something. Very painful, but short-lived at least!
>> Recently, my right foot was very tender/sore in a way that felt like it needed to ‘crack’, but couldn’t. After the first day of this, the same thing happened in my right hand. Both the hand and the foot pain continued for about 3 days.

Background: I have several auto-immune issues (been cropping up throughout my whole life), including kidney disease (IgA Nephropathy with constant protein loss, and sometimes blood casts), thyroid disease (Graves’ disease -> thyroid storm -> dead thyroid), Von Willebrand’s and all manner of smaller-yet-still irritating other stuff like eczema and Sjogren’s syndrome. I’ve tested positive for Lupus and RA antibodies a couple of times, and then later tested negative for them. (How does that even happen?) I’ve also had fibromyalgia for nearly 20 years. Needless to say, I take a lot of medication.

So, with everything I’ve got going on in my body, it’s hard to know what the cause of any specific pain or new symptom might be, or if it’s even worth worrying about. Does anything tie these symptoms together? Is the new stuff I’m experiencing just part of getting older? I just turned 46.

NOTE: I’m just looking for a general idea of what could be going on, and am interested in whether anyone else experiences these things. I have no health insurance, and no money to see a doctor right now. Of course I will go if anything here is urgent, though.

If you read all of that, thank you!

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