Okay, sorry if I am sounding dense. I have had fibro for a couple years now and even though I am still learning about
how my body reacts with it, I know when I am having a fibro flare and what it feels like and when I have overdone it physically.
With the RA, I have pain every day in my joints, mostly my fingers but now also in my elbows, knees, ankles and hips. I have swelling in my ankles if I am on my feet too much. If I sit for too long on a hard chair, my hips start to hurt. I seem to be having more pain since I was dx'ed a few weeks ago and started Plaquenil.
My question is, what other symptoms (if any) denote an RA flare? Yesterday I was feeling hot at one point and took my temperature and it was 99.5. I know that's not considered a fever, but it's high for me 'cause my body temp is usually low. I think I rememeber reading somewhere that one symptom of RA is fever without any other sign of illness but I may be wrong.
I'm having my "monthly visitor" right now and for the past several months, it knocks me on my butt and I feel basically like a truck ran over me (pain, stiffness, extreme fatigue). The past couple months I have also felt dizzy and out of it. this is all on top of the regular monthly cramps, carb and chocolate craving, and being an emotional wreck! I don't know if RA can exacerbate PMS symptoms or whatever. So I've been feeling stiff, wake up with painful joints, dizzy, fatigued, this month (more so than usual). The stiffness is more of o fibro thing, but all the joint aching seems to be RA. Would this be an RA flare?
What syptoms tell you that you are having an RA flare? Or, have I got it wrong and a flare just means that the RA is active in your body? Thanks for reading my rambling, and sorry I have so many questions! I'm a newbie at this RS stuff still!