Mystery Pain

I'm hesitant to even write this post because I'm not looking for sympathy or pity.  It would be nice, however, to get some answers.  Back in December I wrote about some freaky joint pain I had been experiencing for a while.  I'll let you re-read the post if you want, but the long and the short of it is that I have had recurrent, severe pain in my joints for a while now.  It comes and goes and always comes on gradually, but quickly escalates to excruciating.

I'm at the point now where I cannot turn the key in the car's ignition with my right hand.  I struggle to carry certain plates at work due to the pain in my wrist.  When I get out of bed in the morning and step onto the floor, the pain that shoots through my feet feels like my floor is covered with hot coals.  And last night, I went to bed with a little soreness in my hip only to awaken at 1:30 am in exruciating pain.  I was awake until about 3:30 when the two Vicadin I took finally allowed me to go back to sleep.  It hurt too much to lay down though; I had to sleep sitting up.  Today, I have to lift my left leg into the car to get in and out. 

What's the deal?  The last time I suspected something might actually be amiss, I ended up in the emergency room with gall bladder attacks and had to have surgery.  I'm going in to see a nurse practitioner at my clinic tomorrow, but I imagine my hip will be feeling fine by then because that's how this pain works.  It revs up to super-intensity and then abates and disappears for a while before coming back.  How do I even go about getting this diagnosed or even checked out?

Help!