Hi all, My name is Marius and I'm from a smallish city called Witbank in South Africa. My story started about 16 months ago when I started having all kind of muscle ache's and pains. At first I thought it was just lack of exercise as I just started to do vigorous gardening, but soon realized it must be something else as the pains were coming and going - unrelated to when I was gardening.

Went to the doc, and was given regular ant-informatory meds, but to no avail. Pains kept coming and going. Then about the same time I started having sinus issues which was strange to me as I never suffered from sinus issues really, that being strange as our town is known for the filthy air. I was confused as I thought I now am suffering from 2 different angles and at first told my doc. that we can leave the sinus issue for now and just concentrate on the muscle pains as these were having a more profound impact on my daily life then.

In any case, to make a long story short, after many visits and blood tests etc to the doc. I landed up at a Rheumatologist with a diagnoses of Rheumatoid Arthritis. Soon after that my sinuses were acting up so badly (heavy headaches and bloody discharge from nose) that I went to a ENT doc and he said right away that something's wrong up there as my sinuses looked like a "war-zone". He took biopsies and confirmed the diagnoses of WG.

That was the beginning of October 2013. I am now seeing this same ENT specialist, still the same Rheumatologist and an Internist Specialist. They say that other than my nose, no other organs seems to be affected currently and therefore did not give me the Cyclo- or Retoxi- (sorry, do not know the correct names) medication. I am currently on Methotrexate 25mg /week, Prednisone 30mg/day (tappered from 40mg a week ago) and Azapress 100mg/day. Also Folic acid, Vimovo and Calciferol.

I am currently feeling great except for my nose as I feel there is still something going on there but at least I am without any pain and can do most of my work without much difficulty. My eyes are still a bit light sensitive, but much better than before diagnoses. I am seeing the ENT doc again next week and hope he can do something for my nose.

Sorry for the long letter, but as I see in most cases the road to correct diagnoses can be long and troublesome. I am just glad that I am at this stage still doing fairly good and hope it does not go down from hereon.

Regards
Marius