aches again

so, yet again i'm at that point where simply sitting in one spot hurts. there is no position that is comfortable. either my knee or my hip aches, more like screams. yesterday & part of today it was the inability to move my neck. most of today i had a headache and i never have headaches, maybe once every 3 months. (please don't hate me, those of you for whom headaches are a daily trial.)
on monday i went to see a rheumatologist to see what was up with my joint pain. she spent over an hour in the exam room with me, getting my history & manipulating various body parts to see what was causing the problems. of course on monday things weren't so severe, a little twinge in my shoulder.

her diagnosis: arthralgia.

literally, joint pain. seems like a copout diagnosis, since none of my joints were swollen when she saw me. that was not the case when i saw the internist last year on my birthday. i was closer to tears than not & he wanted to give me steroid injections in all my major joints then & there.
dr. s thinks i probably built up antibodies to the remicade infusions & that the joint pain is my colitis manifesting itself in ways other than digestive disturbances. she told me i need to take sulfasalazine two pills twice a day, along with the remicade infusion every 7 to 8 weeks. then, i'm supposed to see her back on june 1st. if things haven't improved, she wants to discuss humira injections (every 2 weeks), instead of the remicade with my gastroenterologist. all the drugs for my autoimmune condition were originally used for arthritis, so it just depends on what my insurance will cover. on one hand, i won't have to take a day off from work to sit with an iv-needle in my arm. on the other, i (or possibly s because i asked if he would do it for me) would have to give myself an injection, at home, every two weeks. guess it's less than a diabetic who needs to inject insulin daily, if i want to look on the bright side.
for now, i just want something to take away the pain i feel on a daily basis. but i'm not going to ask for painkillers. i don't like taking aspirin and i do not intend to be labeled a drug-seeking patient. we get plenty of those who 'need another refill on narcotics' in the clinic & i know how the nurses & doctors treat those people. right now i really feel for them, the ones who are truly in pain, because i completely understand their need to get by & simply function.