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Could this be RA? Please help!

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Rheumatoid Arthritis
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Posted 11/19/2012 9:25 AM (GMT 0)

I know you must get these posts all the time so I am sorry in advance.

I went to my GP yesterday and told her that I have painful wrists. After a few questions she said she wanted to do some bloods. I also told her about a couple of other things that I thought she had dismissed but it's only when I got home and started thinking about it that I think she has grouped all these things together.

So my symptoms are sore wrists but only when I do things like close the boot, open a chest freezer, wring a facecloth out or lift heavy things with one hand. I also get very achey arms and legs and yesterday my legs were so sore that I had pains going down from my hips, pains in my knees and ankles too. The ache in my arms feels like the pain I had once after a flu vaccine. My shoulders also hurt but same again, not pain more of an ache. I have had a upper thorasic hump for a while now at  and this can be excruciating. During the night and in the morning if I get out of bed my feet hurt when I stand on them. I am very stiff in the mornings but it does ease after a while. My feet hurt at night with the weight of the duvet on them.

NOW my problem is that I have multiple sclerosis and for a long time I put the aches down to this. It was only when my MS nurse said that aches are not usually a problem with MS that I wondered was it something else.

I DO NOT have swelling/heat or redness on my joints and the pain is not there all of the time. My legs were bad all day yesterday but a little better now. I do suffer with weakness in my legs from the MS and other sensory symptoms but never had this pain before.

So my question is......does this sound like RA at all or should I just put it to the back of my mind?

Posted 11/19/2012 7:08 PM (GMT 0)
Linz-I'm so sorry you are feeling these pains and aches. I am not an expert but I would like to help. I have had RA for 10 yrs now and am just learning about all of the effects. I wasn't very well educated when I was diagnosed and my mother never really looked into help for me so I am learning as well.
I would like to say that many of your chief complaints sound similar or exact to mine. Do you work on your feet a lot for long hours? I work at a gas station so it can sometimes be excruciating being on my feet for so long on a hard floor. My doc actually told me that my ankles were sprained as well from standing too long.
Morning stiffness is definately a general indicator. I am having a bad day with my arthritis today and am feeling the same. When I sit/stand/lay in the same position for too long I get serious uncomfortable achy stiff joints. (Such as while leaning over a sink doing dishes.)
I found a site that may help you with the knee and hip pain.
http://ms.about.com/od/signssymptoms/f/joint_pain.htm

My advice...ask your doctor. Many do tend to dismiss your efforts at self-diagnosing but bringing up the subject might lead to more questions asked about how you are feeling.
Many of the RA symptoms I have noticed are common with symptoms of other diseases or conditions. I was just poking around some info for you and found a symptom list for Fibromyalgia. I experience every symptom on that list as well.
Sometimes you may be feeling something,like fatigue, that you may dismiss as being stressed, etc. When it may be caused by a condition.
I am learning things like this as well. I never knew my insomnia could be caused by my RA due to the fact that I had a very traumatic experience just before I was diagnosed. It was a long time ago and I couldn't understand why I would still be losing sleep over something that no longer affects my daily life. You never know.
Hope that I was helpful in any way and that you find an answer and a solution for your aches and pains. Makes daily life miserable. :(
Posted 11/19/2012 11:17 PM (GMT 0)
Your joint pains are just like mine. I have Lupus and fibromyalgia. I can only sleep under the lightest weight of a single sheet and sometimes even that hurts.
I come here because lupus has the same pains as RA but doesn't damage the joints. We receive the same medications too.
Posted 11/20/2012 7:06 AM (GMT 0)
Hey couchtater...I have a question for you. Is it possible to have RA and Fibro? I have RA affecting every joint in my body, but some of this pain I have in unreal and doesn't seem like it's just from RA. I was looking up symptoms of Fibro and many of the ones that don't coincide with RA I have but I'm trying not to be a hypochondriac. Just curious because everyone else on this forum seems to be so knowledgeable about all these different conditions and I am very uneducated on them.
I was adopted at birth and so was my biological mother. Medical history kinda stops there and I don't have any contact with her so I have always been alone in this battle. None of my adoptive family or anyone I know has any medical conditions so when I try to explain to them that I am hurting they look at me like I'm just whining. I am only 26 so they think I should be able to fly if I wanted to when the fact remains that I just can't do some of the things I used to be able to at such a young age. Any advice or info would help..thank you in advance.
Posted 11/25/2012 8:15 PM (GMT 0)
Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I forgot I had posted here. (fibro/lupus brain fog, duh)

I'd definately talk to the rheumy about this and get his opinion.

I've got to discuss some new symptoms going on with me to see if things are what I need to expect.

It's aggrevating when you have multiple "pain issues" and you don't know which is bothering.
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