Three months of being sore later I was still thinking, well I'm not sure what this is but I'm sure it'll go away. Things were getting noticeably worse. If I was sitting on the floor it was almost impossible for me to get up again, I'd have to do this rock a bit and then roll to my knees and push up all the time keeping the momentum going. Just standing up was impossible. Trying to put on a button up shirt was a joke, especially the top buttons. Then there were my hands. I'm not a terribly strong person, never lifted weights, never worked out, but I had always had a really strong grip, impeccable penmanship...I had amazing hands! Now. I couldn't curl a hand into a fist without the assistance of my other hand, my hand strength was gone. It was hard to hold a pen yet alone write anything, my impeccable penmanship was gone.
I was nervous about going to the doctor. I remember it as a mix of fear that nothing was wrong and I was just being pathetically weak and a fear that something might actually be wrong and I was too young to have health problems. I heard another guy in my apartment complex mention that he had recently been diagnosed with arthritis. For whatever reason that broke down the barrier of my fear to go see a doctor. I made an appointment with my family doctor. He said that it was possible to get temporary arthritis symptoms and that's probably all it was but he'd run some blood tests anyhow. A couple days later his office called with the blood test results..."you need to go see a Rheumatologist"....
