oh genetics

When I would lay in bed crying as a child because my ankles hurt so bad, everyone thought it was because I was growing.
When I was in high school and the same exact aching, uncomfortable, pressure/pain started in my hips, I chalked it up to being a year-round athlete with no off season and having tight hip-flexors.
When my wrists started feeling tight and like they just needed to pop like a knuckle, I thought it was because of how much time I spent taking notes in school or typing on the computer. By this time, I had accepted that sometimes my hips and ankles hurt so bad I feel radiating pain all up and down my leg, I can't get comfortable, and sometimes I will still lie in bed at three AM crying and writhing around because it hurts so bad. I thought this was normal, and for me it was, I'd felt like this as long as I could remember.
When I felt pain creep deep into my shoulder joint I started to worry. I started talking to my professors who told me to monitor the pain, and control it with Ibuprofen when it got bad. I didn't take anything though. Taking enough pain killers to keep a pain at bay that shows up 3-4 times a week for the whole day is too many pills
When my elbow started to ache on Monday I knew something was wrong.

So I went to see Dr. Grove at Student Health, who, if you remember, is one of the team physicians for Marquette and is the one who looked at my knee last winter. I like the guy. :)
He asked questions, more questions, and tried to reproduce the pain. He was impressed with how my Glut Med strength has improved (which he told me to work on for my knee) and congratulated me on starting to swim instead of try to run everyday. He laughed at the complete and total lack of motion in my feet, and noted that I have good external rotation of my left hip but not the right.
He said that everything about my pain leads him to believe that I have rheumatoid arthritis, and I should get blood work done.

So here you see my prescription for a blood draw and one, two, three, four, five, six, SEVEN different tests to see how my white blood cells and immune factors are doing. I need to get a hold of my mom so she can make me an appointment while I'm home for Thanksgiving, because getting my blood drawn at home will be much cheaper than on campus.

Also, AJ Grove's first name is actually Andrew. That pushed the count of Andrews I know up to...nine.