I’d suffered painful joints since childhood and doctors were useless. Then at 34, a new GP spotted what everyone else had missed. Finally, I had answers

For most of her life, Latoya Rodriguez was told some version of the same thing about the pain she felt in her body.

The ache in her back was ‘mechanical’. The stiffness in her joints was ‘overuse’. The exhaustion was ‘stress’. If she strengthened her core, rested more or pushed through the discomfort, things would settle down.

By the time Latoya was diagnosed at 34, she had spent decades living with symptoms doctors repeatedly brushed aside.

Now 38 and living on the Sunshine Coast, the mother of four says those years of dismissal did not just delay a diagnosis. They changed the way she saw her own body and the way she trusted the medical system that was meant to help her.

Today, she knows the pain that followed her through childhood, pregnancy and motherhood was not imagined or exaggerated.

It was the early warning signs of several autoimmune and inflammatory conditions quietly progressing through her body.

At 34, she was finally diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Further investigations would uncover fibromyalgia, sacroiliitis and spondyloarthritis, along with chronic fatigue.

But for most of her life, nobody recognised the signs.

Looking back now, Latoya says the first signs something was wrong appeared when she was very young.

‘I remember being really little, even in pre-school, and my back just always hurting. But because I was young and active, it was always brushed off as something muscular,’ she tells the Daily Mail.

At the time, she was active and healthy, dancing regularly and moving easily through childhood like any other kid. Because she looked strong on the outside, the discomfort was quickly brushed aside.

Doctors suggested it was likely muscular or mechanical. Perhaps she had strained something at dance? Maybe she had fallen without realising? Whatever the cause, the conclusion was always the same: nothing serious was wrong.

‘When you’re told over and over again that nothing is wrong, you start to believe it. I basically gaslit myself into thinking I just had to push through.’

So she stopped talking about it and simply learned to live with it. Over time, the ache became part of her normal life.

Latoya reveals there was another health issue that followed her from childhood into adulthood but was never properly explored.

Her digestive problems began when she was about six years old.

She remembers seeing a doctor once and being handed a small booklet explaining how to recognise when her body needed to go to the bathroom.

‘There were no tests,’ she says. ‘It was just about learning to listen to your body.’

The problem continued in the background for years and eventually became severe in adulthood.

Just a few years ago, Latoya was hospitalised after going an entire month without being able to use the bathroom properly. Her stomach had swollen dramatically.

‘My abdomen looked like I was six months pregnant,’ she says.

At the time, the cause was still unclear. Only later, after her autoimmune diagnoses, did some of those symptoms begin to make more sense.

‘It was just another thing that had been there the whole time,’ she says.

When Latoya became pregnant with her first child at 21, everything intensified.

She developed severe hyperemesis gravidarum, an extreme form of pregnancy sickness that left her unable to keep food or water down.

For months, she relied on hospital drips every 48 hours simply to stay hydrated, all while her back screamed in pain.

But once her son was born and the sickness eased, the deeper pain in her body remained. She struggled to hold her baby for long periods because of the strain in her back and hips.

Living remotely at the time, she finally began pushing for answers.

There were X-rays and scans. Doctors noticed unusual ‘grey markers’ on her spine. During one appointment, a locum doctor looked at the scan before she had even sat down and made a comment that has stayed with her ever since.

He told her that if he had not looked at her date of birth, he would have assumed the scan belonged to a 50-year-old woman.

Latoya remembers sitting there, stunned. She was 21.

But despite the alarming observation, she says nothing further happened. The comment was made almost casually before the conversation moved on. She was again told to strengthen her core, build muscle and treat the issue as mechanical.

Looking back now, she says that moment stands out as a missed opportunity.

‘If the scan looked like it belonged to a 50-year-old, why wasn’t that investigated further?’ she says.

Still searching for relief, Latoya made a decision she hoped might finally ease the strain on her body.

She underwent breast reduction surgery.

Small-framed everywhere else but carrying an F-cup bust, she had struggled with the physical weight since her teenage years. After becoming a mother and battling worsening back pain, she began to believe that reducing the pressure might allow her to move more comfortably and strengthen her body.

Doctors told her the surgery might help, though they could not guarantee it.

By that stage Latoya says she felt emotionally disconnected from her body.

‘I just felt like it was constantly failing me,’ she recalls.

The surgery did improve some aspects of her quality of life and allowed her to move more freely. But the deep, persistent back pain she had lived with since childhood remained.

The real cause was still undiscovered.

Years later, after the traumatic birth of her fourth son, Latoya tried to rebuild her strength through running.

During that pregnancy, she had been placed on long courses of steroid medication to manage severe hyperemesis, and the treatment caused her weight to double.

Exercise became an important way to reclaim her health.

But one day while running on a treadmill, her knee suddenly gave way.

She was referred to a specialist after scans showed damage. The appointment, she says, was brief and deeply upsetting.

‘He walked into the room and was really abrupt,’ she recalls. ‘There was no conversation, no explanation. He just looked at the scan and said, “You’ve damaged your knee.”‘

The doctor recommended cortisol injections.

Latoya, still traumatised by the steroid medication she had taken during pregnancy, said she was uncomfortable with the idea of more steroids and asked for more information and guidance.

His response stunned her.

‘He said, “If you don’t do it, I’ll see you in ten years when you’re ready for your wheelchair.”‘

Latoya left the appointment in tears. More than the comment itself, it was the lack of compassion that stayed with her.

‘There was no attempt to understand why this was happening to my body,’ she says.

Over the years, Latoya’s back pain became more severe and unpredictable.

There were moments when a simple movement like bending down or turning around would cause her back to ‘lock’ completely.

The pain would shoot through her spine so intensely that she could not stand.

One day, while raising four children as a single mother, she collapsed inside her home after another sudden episode.

A friend spent hours trying to help her stand so she could reach the bathroom. Eventually, paramedics were called. Even then, Latoya says she felt dismissed.

‘One of the paramedics kept saying, “Come on, I know it feels like you can’t walk, but you can.”‘

She was screaming in pain. It was only when it took two green whistles of pain relief before she was able to stand and move toward the ambulance that the medical team realised she was serious.

Experiences like that left lasting psychological damage. After years of hearing her pain minimised, she began questioning her own perception.

‘You start to gaslight yourself,’ she says. ‘You start thinking maybe it really is in your head.’

The most dangerous dismissal came during her fourth pregnancy.

By that stage Latoya’s hyperemesis had become extreme. She was vomiting constantly and struggling to keep even water down. When she went to emergency seeking help, she hoped to receive fluids and support.

Instead, she says a doctor told her she could not keep coming back to hospital for hydration.

Then he suggested the sickness might be psychological.

‘He told me being sick was a matter of the mind,’ Latoya recalls.

According to the doctor, if she woke up expecting to feel sick, then she would.

Humiliated and exhausted, Latoya discharged herself from hospital.

She went home, determined to push through the illness alone, because she did not want to be seen as an inconvenience. For the next two weeks she continued vomiting relentlessly.

Her condition deteriorated rapidly. The vomiting became so violent that the sides of her mouth began to tear and bleed. Eventually there was nothing left in her stomach except for blood and bile. Her body finally shut down.

Latoya collapsed on the floor of her home after days without nutrition or hydration.

When she was eventually admitted to hospital, she had gone into shock and remained unconscious for three days while doctors worked to stabilise her.

The hyperemesis itself was not necessarily linked to the autoimmune diseases she would later be diagnosed with. But for Latoya, the experience felt painfully familiar.

Just like the unexplained pain she had lived with since childhood, she says she was once again being medically dismissed when something was clearly wrong with her body.

The impact of that moment stayed with her long after the pregnancy ended. After being told her symptoms were ‘in her head’, Latoya says she began second-guessing her instincts and delaying treatment when something felt wrong.

Everything changed when Latoya was 34.

Her regular doctor had moved away and a new GP took over the practice. By that stage, years of dismissal had convinced her the pain was simply something she would live with forever.

She was not actively searching for a diagnosis anymore.

But after another severe back episode left her unable to move while packing to move house, she contacted the new doctor.

This time, someone listened.

During the examination, the GP noticed reduced sensation down the back of her leg and immediately ordered further testing.

An MRI revealed abnormal markers along her spine, prompting urgent investigation. At first, doctors warned cancer needed to be ruled out, leaving Latoya terrified while awaiting further tests.

The next day, she finally received the answer she had been searching for.

She had rheumatoid arthritis.

Further investigations revealed fibromyalgia, sacroiliitis and spondyloarthritis, along with chronic fatigue.

The diagnoses did not bring instant relief. After years of dismissal, Latoya struggled to trust the medical system now offering treatment. She initially resisted medication, trying instead to manage the condition through lifestyle changes and environmental adjustments.

Eventually, worsening joint damage forced her to reconsider.

Today, she balances medication with holistic approaches to managing inflammation and stress. She is also watching her teenage son navigate his own diagnosis. At 16, he was recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, something Latoya recognised quickly because of her own experience.

Looking back now, Latoya says there were several moments where someone could have connected the dots sooner.

But the most important message she hopes others take from her story is simple.

If something feels wrong in your body, trust that instinct.

‘It’s not in your head,’ she says. ‘It’s very real.’