Autoimmune Mechanism and conditions Archives

Hurting feet and weak joints

Dr. Stoll,

In January I gave birth to my first child. I breastfed and everything seemed to be going pretty well although my daughter has had several yeast infections and I believe we shared thrush while she was nursing. When she was four months old, my milk began to dry up so I began taking Fenugreek, which I had read would help increase milk production. I don't know if this was just coincidence but within a week I was beginning to have stiffness in my pinky fingers. They would be stiffest in the mornings and would loosen up through the day but they got steadily worse. Then my feet began hurting. They hurt along the outer edge all the way from the small toe to the heel. Within a week they were hurting so bad I would hobble out of bed in the mornings. Again, they hurt less as the day wore on, but would again hurt if I sat for any prolonged period of time. Soon, my knees and my elbows began hurting if too much pressure was applied on them.

I went to see a doctor about all of this and he tested me for Rheumatoid Arthritis. He told me that there was no indication of it in the labwork and that the pain was most likely caused by DJD, but I find this diagnosis hard to believe as this came on so fast. My daughter is now 9 months old and I am still dealing with the pain because I don't trust the traditional doctors to deal with me seriously. They tend to simply look at these types of issues as if the patient is just a hypochondriac. I am hoping that maybe you might have some idea of what could be happening here. I appreciate any insight you can give.

Renee