Hey everyone, it's my first time posting on this sub. I am a 36 year old male. This will be a long post, but I will add a TL/DR at the bottom. I am not sure what I am trying to get out of this post besides just ranting and maybe someone having similar symptoms or experiences chimes in.

Over the past year I have had several orthopedic issues, and I am starting to wonder if I have an autoimmune disease. Before I go into a brief history of my symptoms I want to say that my ortho ordered a series of rheumatological blood tests a few days ago. They didn't take my blood in the office, but want me to go to a lab. I am in the process of making the appropriate appointment (waiting on a call back from my PCP).

Ok so here is what has been going on. About four or five years ago I decided to get into shape. I started exercising regularly, doing high intensity interval training, running, hiking, etc. When I was a kid I broke my shoulder. I never really had any issues with it, and tbh I had almost forgotten that I had even broke it such a long time ago. I did have some pain in the shoulder at the beginning of my journey at getting in shape, and I had a cortisone injection about four years ago. Other than that though it never really bothered my too bad, and I always thought the issues I had with the shoulder were just from working out ... you know ... no pain no gain. But last year I did start getting a lot more shoulder and neck pain. I finally made an appointment with an ortho. He took one look at my back and could tell almost immediately that I had a cyst that was pushing on my suprascapular nerve causing muscle atrophy. The X-rays and subsequent mri also showed bad arthritis and a torn labrum. My doc said I had a "very interesting" shoulder and it was something he would expect to see in a 60 year old. I ended up having surgery to remove the cyst and some rogue bone growth. The labrum has not repaired because there was worry it would tighten the shoulder joint up and exacerbate the arthritis.

A few months go by and I am back in the gym working out. I made adjustments and basically stayed away from most exercises on that shoulder. At this point I am fairly certain the issues with the shoulder are primarily attributed to the injury when I was a child. But around the same time I was seeing the ortho for the shoulder I ran my first 5k. About half way through the race I felt a pain in my right hip. It was a pain I had experienced before whenever I would run on the road (which wasn't much), but I never really had issues with it when running on a treadmill. After the 5k however, the pain never really went away. I finally decided to get it checked out. The ortho did x-rays and said things looked good, but he wanted me to get an MRI just to be sure. He suspected a hip impingement. I get the MRI and yes I have a hip impingement (FAI) along a torn labrum and mild hip arthritis. This was on my right hip. But my left hip also showed mild arthritis. I am scheduled to have surgery in a few weeks to repair the labrum and shave the bone down to hopefully fix the impingement.

Around the same time as the hip pain I was also having knee pain. The knee pain was on the same side as the hip impingement that needs surgery. I decided I should at least get it checked out. So I made another appointment with the ortho and they took x-rays. I have mild arthritis in my knee along with some bone spurs.

At this point I have had imagining done on four joints (left shoulder, both hips, and right knee). All have at least mild arthritis (the exception is the shoulder which is more progressed). When my ortho was discussing the knee arthritis he did mention that this finding was "disturbing" since I was so young.

When at the appointment with the hip surgeon (different doctor but same practice) I asked "What the hell is wrong with me?" He suggested it might be autoimmune and ordered the blood work.

The mention of a possible autoimmune condition immediately brought back memories (and extreme anxiety) of some issues I had about 15 - 17 years ago. When I was a senior in college (22 years old) I had what I thought was mono. I was extremely fatigued and could barely get off the couch. I went to the health clinic, and they tested me for mono which came back negative. They also gave me a sulfa antibiotic for some reason. After taking the antibiotic I developed what I thought was serum sickness. The primary symptom was burning in my joints. They took me off the sulfa and did blood work. They tested me for several things. I believe it was a typical rheumatoid panel. Everything, as far as I can remember, came back negative except for the erythrocyte sedimentation rate which basically came back as extremely abnormal. If I remember correctly it came back around 90mm/hr (with normal range being about 0-20mm/hr but don't quote me on that ... I just remember that it was way above normal). This inflammation problem eventually went away after a few weeks, and no further follow up was done as I graduated college and moved away.

Fast forward a couple years, and I am working my first career type job. I don't remember the specifics, but I had another round of issues that could be possibly autoimmune. The one symptom I distinctively remember was extreme dry-eye which was confirmed by my eye doctor. I do also remember having a burning sensation in my hip at one point during this time. I remember extreme anxiety as this was the first time I thought this could be an autoimmune issue. Of course I googled things and just completely freaked myself out. I thought my eye problems were a case of Sjogren's Syndrome, and I even considered making a rheumy appointment. But the anxiety kept me from doing so. Eventually the problems resolved themselves, and I just carried on with my life without ever getting checked again for autoimmune problems.

I have not had any symptoms since that time, that I am aware of, that I would classify as joint inflammation that would make me concerned. By that I mean I may have had joint pain, but I just brushed it off as a hard day at the gym or a long day hiking. I have had issues with dry eye off and on however. I also have had a lot of problems with sinus congestion, but that has been a constant throughout my life.

At this point I believe that I do have some sort of susceptibility to an autoimmune condition. But I believe it is something that flares up at times throughout my life. I believe I had a flares years ago during the two times mentioned. I think that those flares caused some joint damage, and that is why I am seeing mild arthritis in my hips and knees now. The increased activity of getting in shape and hitting the gym for a few years has caused the issues to become noticeable. I may be completely wrong though. Just trying to rationalize through the problem and provide an explanation. I will hopefully be getting blood work done very soon, and will update this post with the results. I am also considering just making an appt with a rheumy to basically go over this history and issues regardless of what the blood work says.

Oh yeah, my maternal grandmother had RA, and I think my cousin on my dad's side had JRA.

TL/DR: I am a 36 year old male in what I feel is good shape. Over the past year I have been diagnosed with mild arthritis in both hips and at least one knee. I have more severe arthritis in a shoulder, but I also broke that shoulder when I was a kid. I will be having hip surgery for a torn labrum and impingement soon. I had shoulder surgery last year. I do have a few instances in my past of potential autoimmune problems, but it has never been properly diagnosed as such. I am experiencing high anxiety as am worried about what my future prognosis is.

Anyone have any similar issues or experiences? Any advice?

Thanks for reading!