I have not been diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis yet, but I am worried that I might have it. I have a lot of the symptoms, and I've got a sister who has scleroderma, so autoimmune disease is not exactly foreign to my family! I'm 35 years old and my hands have been aching terribly for a couple of months now. My feet have also been bothering me for the last month. I'm terribly stiff in the morning (I actually wobble to the bathroom), but I can't say that it lasts for several hours. Also, my pain is pretty much all day, not just in the morning, or even worse in the morning. It's all the time.
The pain is totally in my joints and it is both sides (right and left). However, I don't think that I have any swelling (at least that I can tell for sure). I do have a couple of odd bumps by a few knuckles, but I can't say with absolute certainty that they haven't always been there. Honestly, I never looked at my hands and feet that closely before! I even think my toes look different (like little clubs), but again, maybe they always looked like that and I'm just crazy. I do not have any of the systematic symptoms like fever or flu-like symptoms.
I actually had trouble with my hands hurting about a year and a half ago. I thought it might be arthritis since it was definitely the bones that hurt, not muscles or tendons. I even bought some Tylenol Arthritis, which didn't help AT ALL. But it ended up resolving itself so I never did anything about it. This time I started researching the symptoms though and I realized that I was also having other symptoms that I had not even connected with my hands/feet.
I have had trouble with my right hip for the last year or so - I can't stand or walk around for any length of time without it being terribly uncomfortable and painful, and it also causes pain in my lower back. I feel like I just have to sit down or lean on something to get the pressure off my hip and back. Last summer I went to an Active Release Technique Chiropractor because of the trouble I was having with my hip and back. I went several times and she was totally perplexed because I wasn't making any improvement. After about 2 months, she suggested I look into other treatment options because if ART was going to help me, I would have seen improvement within that time. Nothing seems to make that better.
I also have trouble with my right shoulder - I can't lie on my right side anymore because it hurts when I do. I had written it off as an "old swimming injury" (just overuse - nothing acute), even though it hadn't bothered me for some 10+ years. It never occurred to me that it might be related to my hip or my hands or anything else.
Unfortunately I lost my job about 5 months ago and consequently have totally crappy insurance to try to save money. Pretty much anything I have done right now is cash out of pocket, not to mention likely prohibiting me from ever being able to get better insurance. I did go see a rheumatologist. She didn't think I have RA because of the lack of swelling. She recommended that I take 2 aleve in the a.m. and 2 in the p.m., and also try some water aerobics and possibly massage therapy or physical therapy. She was willing to do bloodwork, but we decided to hold off on that since she wasn't too concerned that I had RA, the cost is really high and it would tatoo me with "pre-existing condition" should I ever get a diagnosis. She did take x-rays of my pelvis and back since it had bothered me for so much longer, just to be sure there was nothing wrong there. Of course there wasn't. And she said to give her a call if I noticed any swelling at all.
Hi, your symptoms are very much what I have experienced. My hands, particularly my thumbs, started hurting about 3 years ago. I thought maybe I did something to my right because it hurt more and the left is doing more work and I didn't give it too much thought. Went to the doc, she said tendonitis and sent me to ortho for splints and pt. ortho said this might be ra, have I been tested?. I said no and kinda dismised it, I played with the pt putty for several weeks, wore the splints but never got better. I went back 3-4 months later because I just woke up one morning and both my ankles were hurting. My feet/ankles never hurt. I walk about 20-30 miles per week work out 5-6 days per week at the gym, this is weird. Doc sent me for ra test, came back negative, did the whole aleve thing with NO relief and 2 months later I am hobbling everyday, very painful ankles and hands. It felt like someone was trying rip and tear my thumb joints from my hands. I never noticed any swelling but a little warmth in the area like it had a fever. My doc put on prednisone for 2 weeks, she said if it helped it was a sign that it could be ra. I was the best few days I had had in almost a year by then. Went to a rheumy about a year after symptoms had started, still my bloodwork was normal so he started me one plaquenil for a while then added arava when my elbows and shoulders joined the party. And he said it was just to see what happens, he noticed swelling that I did not see. The meds started helping about 6 weeks into tx. He ran bone scans and mri's and they did show bi-lateral inflammation in various joints. He took me off the arava, it had some strange side effects, and put me on methotrexate. I've taken my 5th dose this week and I can already tell its helping, about a week ago my shoulders started feeling better, my ankles and hands are feeling better. I have left out alot, trying to make a long road shorter. I am actually on my second rheumy cause the first said I was making it all up. My current rheumy continually says that I am the weirdest case he has dealt with and my tx was imperical. I had signs and symptoms but nothing concrete, no absolute testing. I am glad and thankful that he believed me. He has said that he believes its ra and still says that I am the weirdest case. I am walking again, not like I used to and the gym is a thing of the past but tai-chi and yoga are enjoyable replacements.
It has changed me, it has been a long frustrating road, alot of tests, alot of tears, too much pain, no absolute answers to help me or my docs.
I really hope you get the answers and the help you need. I really hope its not ra, no one deserves what this illness dishes out.
Nan,
What you are going through sounds like what they put my mom through. After the gambit of trying different drugs (same ones as you and then add Enbral) she has developed Cirrosis of the liver (from all that wonderful drug thereapy) and if she lasts the year we will all be surprised. Question everything they give you and then ask again. Better safe than ... Also look up candida albicans, it mimics RA but unlike RA it is curable. I heard an old Greek quote from Hippocrates (I think) "let food be your medicine and medicine be your food!" Good luck and may God bless all of you who suffer from these terrible illnesses.
Well, I looked up candida albicans, and I couldn't find anything that said it mimics RA or is even remotely similar - perhaps I was not looking in the right place? If you have a link to some information about it, I woud be grateful to read it. I would love nothing more than to find something that offers an alternative diagnosis to the symptoms I've been having, since I really, really do not want to have to experiment with the drugs that are available for RA or have to deal with injections or anything else.
On a side note, I'm going to see the rheumatologist again and see if there is any swelling to be worried about - my hands have been exceptionally bad this week and I think my knuckles look larger, although it looks more like a bone-type of larger rather than a puffy swelling-type larger.
If she still doesn't think it's RA, I would at least like her to offer up an alternative, because having all this pain and spending all night every night with ice packs on my hands makes for most unhappy times.