Hi, By looking at your complaints, you are suffering from a condition know as inflammatory arthritis, basically what this means is that some kind of immune reaction or foreign body has triggered such complaints. having early morning stiffness goes strongly in favour of inflammatory arthritis, and having symmetrical joints involved likely favours a condition know as Rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis usually involves the peripheral joints and seldom affecting the axial joints (spinal). You are visiting a rheumatologist you are in the correct department to address your complaints. You will be required to go through a couple of blood test like kidney profile, liver profile chest X-ray, viral markers and inflammatory markers like ESR and CRP. Medications with Disease Modifying Anti rheumatic drugs DMARD s like steroids and hydroxy-chloroquine and methotrexate will benefit you a lot and also to include daily exercises too. If the condition is left un-addressed it can lead to permanent joint deformity. It looks like you have an acute onset of inflammatory arthritis, Early treatment will benefit you a lot and early control. Take care. Hope I have answered your question. Let me know if I can assist you further. Regards, Dr. Siddharth Kumar, Internal Medicine Specialist