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_Seek_'s avatar

What questions should I ask the doctor?

Asked by _Seek_ (2897points) October 18th, 2015

I don’t want to come off as a hypochondriac, first off.

Secondly, I am wary about asking leading questions like, “I think I have X issue, and here are all the reasons why”, because I don’t want the person to just agree with me to get me out of their office.

But I have a host of issues that are bugging me.
The symptoms I want to discuss are:

Pain and slight loss of range of motion in shoulders, which began last August.

Pain in hands and fingers, occasional numbness and tingling lasting a few weeks, noticeable reduction in grip strength, began almost two years ago.

Pain in toes and balls of feet, began… well, before I had cognizant memory. It’s become noticeably worse lately – first really noticed when I had to “nope” out of Disney World with my kid halfway through the day. I was in tears with pain just from walking.

Pain in hips, occasional feeling of hips “popping” out of place. Began maybe a month or two ago?

All-over fatigue and aching in body upon waking up. It takes a while to get the gumption to get out of bed, and I feel like a zombie for about an hour after that. Began approx. 2 months ago. This is brand new – I’ve always been a morning person.

Having spoken with a close friend about this, she sounded terrified and said she fervently hoped my next trip wasn’t to a rheumatologist. She was diagnosed with RA in her 30s and has been completely disabled since her mid-40s (she is in her 60s now and gets around via power chair and needs someone to brush her hair for her). I am hoping this is a “hammer sees only nails” situation and maybe there’s some other explanation.

Anyway, TL;DR…

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