Good luck to you with the big move Gracie. Just make sure your insurance is good where you are going.

I did get my MRIs back on my shoulders and they were a very long list of unintelligable findings like "diffuse, severe atrophy of the teres minor muscle" and "nonspecific glenohumeral effusion with slight thickening of the anteroinferior capsuloligamentious structures" which can be associated with "adhesive capsulitis" and "mild to moderate calcific tendinitis involves the supraspinatus tendon. There is a 5mm focal signal void within the superficial fibers of the far anterior supraspinatus insertion near the rotator interval associated with 10 to 20% bursal side fraying over 15 mm of the anterior and mid supraspinatus insertion"

And you think YOU'VE got some reading to do?

whoa! that's not english to me, but good luck learning about that. sooo, the question i have is - does that equal arthritis? what causes that?

Funny you should ask.

I googled the one thing that both my shoulders had in common: "The findings are nonspecific but can be associated with adhesive capsulitis" (otherwise known as "Frozen Shoulder") and lo and behold found some very interesting stuff. There appears to be a neurological componant to this syndrome including sympathetic autonomic dysfunction. I do know there have been other posts on this forum about frozen shoulder so I may start another one to see how prevelent it is. This from emedicine:

"Clinical research suggests the presence of autonomic sympathetic dysfunction in the upper extremities in many patients with isolated idiopathic FS. This dysfunction is not detectable during usual clinical examination. However, various examination techniques, such as 3-phase nuclear technetium-99m (99mTc) bone thermography, laser Doppler flowmetry, and transcutaneous measurement of oxygen tension, have been used to detect the anomalies found in more than 80% of subjects examined in various studies."

And I guess I fall into this as well:

"FS will undoubtedly become increasingly common as the baby-boom generation ages, because this condition most frequently occurs in the fifth and sixth decades of life. Patients who present with an idiopathic FS when they are younger than 40 years should definitely be examined to rule out occult diabetes, hyperthyroidism, hypertriglyceridemia, or concomitant neurologic or systemic rheumatologic disorder affecting the upper extremity."

So once again I am presented with both a neurological and rheumatologic connection here (my problems with my shoulders started in my 30s). Once again, this is the advantage to having MRI of your joints as it does reveal great detail that the x-rays do not.

Adhesive Capsulitis

quite interesting. but you have problems with other joints too, right? if frozen shoulder is recognized as a component of nervous system issues, are other joint problems?

WOW! That gives us a lot to look forward to, doesn't it? I'm just beginning to have joint pain and so far I'm trying to ignore it until it becomes consistent. I'll be on the lookout now!

I think there is very little out there about RA and ANS dysfunction ( I did find this one:
Cardiovascular autonomic nervous system dysfunction in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and systemic lupus erythematosus
but SLE and Sjogren's both have more connection with it. Sjogren's especially is known for affecting both joints and ANS: Autonomic nervous symptoms in primary Sjögren's; syndrome.

I'm hypothesizing that my shoulders may be damaged from an ANS problem but with the bilateral bursitis in my hips it may be a rheumatologic thing going on (the bursa are filled with synovial fluid which is generally what RA attacks--an older shoulder MRI of mine showed massive synovitis which has now resolved). And then again there are numerous overlaps of these syndromes and as Neshima says, maybe we shouldn't get too hung up on exactly which one it is...