Hi, I have an appointment on monday the 13th of September with doctor. I have diabetes, may have M.S. and appearently possibly RA. I have been the healthiest man I knew all of my life until I hit 45. Now I have excrciating pain in both arms but mainly shoulder, elbow, wrist and base of my fingers on right arm. also have severe muscle spasms on right arm not so severe on left arm. Knees and anckles stiff all day too.
Dan
Dan,
Hello! I am so sorry to hear that you are in so much pain! I totally understand the healthy until a certain age thing. Mine was very healthy until 42. I do hope that the Dr. can get some answers for you so you can get some medicine to help ease your discomfort and make life easier for you. You will get there, sometimes it is a longer process than we prefer it to be. Glad you are here in our community. It is a great place with a wealth of information and wonderful support. Please keep us posted how you are doing.
Kim :)
Hi, Dan. Welcome to our community. So sorry to hear about how much pain you are experiencing. Happy to hear you have a doctor's appointment next Monday. Sometimes it takes the docs awhile to sort things out. Be sure to tell the doctor how much pain you are in. They need all that information to make the correct diagnosis. Hope you get some relief soon. And.........don't worry about the spelling. We all have our days. We understand to the point that we don't even notice most of the time LOL Best Wishes to you. Hang in there. V
I used to be the guy that never went to the doctor. I never really had to go. I would sometimes get the bad cold or a virus but I would work through it and rest when I could. On the rare occasion that I would actually go to the dr. I would never tell him anything that I thought he didn't need to know. After I turned 40 something and found I out that I have diabetes, That all changed. It didn't change overnight but when I learned that my sugar was way out of control even after I changed my lifestyle I decided that maybe the doctor does know best. I am now on insulin and it is under control. My M.S. symptoms are also under control (as well as can be expected). All of this is because I am honest with my doctor. After a few months of this joint pain and my neurologist telling me that I only need physical therapy I decided to go to RA doctor. I will be as honest as Abe.
so sorry to hear that you've been hit this hard. hopefully you'll get a diagnosis - yes, I know that sounds weird, but if you get a diagnosis, you can get treatment and that's the first step to getting your life back.
One of our Experts on the site also has MS and RA, so you may want to check out her posts on RA and MS and day-to-day life with these two conditions. I'll send her a message asking her to check out this question so she can offer you some first-hand advice.
As well, I'd recommend checking out our area about the basics of RA for more information about the disease - the more informed you are, the more control you feel - as well as our area for the newly diagnosed, that has posts on many aspects of living will with RA. We also have a site for MS that might be helpful to you.
please let us know how your appointment with the rheumatologist went.
Hi Dan,
Welcome to the site. I wish we could "meet" under other circumstances. I hope and pray that you don't have RA. But if you are DXd, then start disease modifying meds right away. Keep us posted.
http://livingwithra.wordpress.com/
Ok so My doctor called and said my blood work was basically normal except that it does show inflammation. She put me on 1200 mg of Oxaprozin. It does definitely help with the joint pain and swelling. I have to go back on 10/11 to see her again. I will update then.
So no dx yet but I am getting some relief anyway.
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Sorry about the spelling. Sometimes the pain hurts so bad I don't even care about the spelling.