It's been 15 months since I was FQ'd. I was diagnosed with rotator cuff tendonitis in July, 1999, and had the usual round of joint pain, muscle twitching, muscle pain, and other symptoms. As I've written before, I've slowly gotten better and, starting about three months ago, I've felt pretty good.

The biggest exception has been the rotator cuff tendonitis in my left shoulder, which has gotten better, but never gone away, and the tendency of my arms and legs to "go to sleep", especially while sleeping. I am still awakened an average of once a night with my left arm tingling and sore. 

Starting a couple of weeks ago, I've been having pains in my finger joints. Usually one finger will hurt for most of a day, and then not hurt the next day. The past three days I've had multiple sore finger joints, both wrists, much worse than average shoulder pain, and elbow pain. This joint pain is local, stabbing, and does not respond to modest doses of ibuprofen. I also had a blood test last month that showed elevated CRP levels (C-reactive protein is a plasma protein that rises in the blood with the inflammation from certain conditions.) Elevated CRP can be caused by infection or other non-systemic problem, but it can also be caused by arthritis, advanced cancer, or lupus and other inflammatory diseases.  

I'm pretty sure I don't have advanced cancer, and I don't have any other lupus-like symptoms. Since I really don't want to think about arthritis, I thought I would ask if any of you have had this sort of pain that you are pretty sure was part of your FQ reaction. There is no swelling or redness, by the way, just pain. My range of motion is normal. 

Anyone else have elevated CRP's, or have any information they can share? 

(One strange idea, might the elevated CRP level be associated with allergy desentization injections? I started getting allergy shots early this summer, and am still in the increasing-dosage part of treatment. I am wondering if the allergy shots might be triggering a reaction -- perhaps histamines? -- that causes inflammation and elevated CRP levels? I'll ask my doctor, but, as usual, I don't expect to learn much.)