What Causes Pain In Fingers, Arms And Shoulders Along With Sores On The Back?

I have pain in my fingers, thumbs, wrists, arms and shoulders and the pain has accelerated in a relatively short period of time. I also have a problem with sores, origin unkown, which keep appearing all over my back. Is there any relation to the two, and could this be something related to the endocrine system, as my family has a strong history in that area....diabetes, goiters, lupus, liver disease, etc. I don t swallow the nurse practitioner s belief that I have RA