Stiff painful swollen fingers in mornings

I take Amitriptyline to help me sleep better. What dosage are you taking? I started at 10 mg and when it stopped helping I moved to 20 and now I'm at 30mg.

I also have problems with stiff swollen fingers. This predates my taking Amitriptyline, so I know the medicine isn't the cause of my problem. My diagnosis of Fibro came about because at the start my fingers hurt so much my doctor though I had RA, but that test came back negative. As did all of the others as the pain spread throughout my body. The pain is mostly gone now, but my fingers are so swollen I haven't been able to wear my wedding ring for months.

My fingers swell up at anytime. I have days where the joints throb with the typing on the keyboard.

Thanks. I've never posted on a forum before. Thanks for the suggestion, Debbie. Would I stay on the fibromyalgia group? How do I start a new thread? (Sorry about my ignorance)

DW, is it possible that the synthroid can cause this as a side effect? The dosage was raised a tiny bit from the 25 to 50 mcg before this happened, but absolutely no doctors thought the dose was too high or that the dose was the problem. The first rheumatologist I saw, who patted me on the head and said in effect, "Don't worry, little girl, about this silly frozen finger business" (I'm 47), said that generic synthroid was the culprit. So we switched to the expensive brand. No improvement.

If I drop back to 25 mcg., how long would I need to stay on that lower dose, do you think, to figure out if that's it? My primary dr. (managing the thyroid) thought that if I were having a reaction to the thyroid medication, it would have shown up a few years ago when I started taking it, not when the dosage was raised a little bit. I shut it down to 25 mcg several time for a few days in a row, but then I realized that I was feeling awful and acting really grumpy and mean, but the fingers were still the same. They've tested all sorts of thyroid numbers, but I don't know if they did reverse T3. The current rheumatologist tested for antibodies and found them, so I'm guessing he also tested the other T numbers. For a while he put erythromelagia (sp?) as the diagnosis, but it doesn't really fit. I'll check my test results (if I have them -- you know how hard it is sometimes to actually get information about your own bloodwork!).

Do a lot of people with fibromyalgia also suffer from other odd conditions? Sorry, but I just now found this helpful forum when I googled about my fingers.

My parents were diagnosed with low thyroid a few years ago (ages in the 70's) and yesterday my sister was diagnosed with MS. My brother is one of the few people in the US who lived 8 years with severe chronic pancreatitis (hooked up to TPN for years, unable to eat, stuck on the highest doses of narcotics, continual attacks, living in a hospital bed) and then was a grand success story when he found top doctors to remove the entire diseased pancreas and give him his life back. So I don't know if I've inherited some odd conditions myself. . .

As far as fibromyalgia goes, I was diagnosed with it years ago after neck, shoulder, wrist, nerve entrapment problems; but after changing my computer setup and work station and changing piano instruction (to an expert on healthy wrist positions and technique so I wouldn't be straining my hands or arms), those symptoms disappeared and I figured fibromyalgia was just a diagnosis the dr. used as a catchall because he couldn't quite pinpoint it anyhow. One nurse practitioner thought this hand condition was from fibromyalgia, but she prescribed some sort of very strong antianxiety meds, which I decided not to take because of the possible side effects. A neurologist thought I could try strong medicine used with parkinson's, which I decided against because of the scary side effects. These were just hit and miss attempts to help.

So a low dose of thyroid meds could cause arthritis-type symptoms? Sometimes my feet burn too in the mornings. Is the burning sensation in extremities a symptom of fibromyalgia?

Thanks, everybody.

I meant to say, katie bell I don't have as severe symptoms as you do. My fingers are only swollen and sore in the morning and there is no bleeding under the finger nails.

Sean.

I took Elavil (amytriptyline) for several years for chronic diarrhea (Elavil is very drying to the system). I had no problems with stiffness then, but now, a few years later, I wake up with stiff fingers. No swelling, though.

Thanks Katie, I certainly will let you know. The rheumie I am seeing on Tuesday is supposed to be the best in my country so hopefully she can help. My last rheumie was not great, it was my GP (family doc) that helped the most. He kept saying that I should go for the Calmare therapy. There is no way I would do that. That does sound the same as me, its so strange. I had the same thing this morning but now the joints at the top of my little fingers are still sore after being awake for a while.

Thanks for replying luvzminis. I hope it is the ami and not something more sinister.

Sean

Hi Katie. I'm just back from the rheumie visit. What an interesting 45 minutes. She noticed within 5 minutes, before I had a chance to say anything about symptoms, that I had hypermobility syndrome (I've had this since birth and inherited this from my mother) by squeezing a few fingers and streching my skin. She then checked all of my tender points and checked each joint for how mobile they were. After that I told her my symptoms. She said that I had fibro which was caused by joint hypermobility syndrome. I posted a question a while back about this - https://www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=24&m=2370452. Finally I have a reason why this happened to me, I'm still shocked. She was at a conference a little while ago about hypermobility and Fibro. So she has rx prozac and to stop taking the amitriptyline. She also gave me the contact details for a Neurostructural Integration Technique physician and told me to start doing some serious exercise, starting with 30 minute walks, no matter how sore I am. Just in time for winter, brrrr. I am still in shock about all this. I brought this up with my previous rheumie and he just brushed it off as if I was crazy. We are all so different though, this is just what seemed to happened to me. I suppose I'll find out over the next few nights if the finger pain is from amit. and I'll let you know. I'm going to sit on the couch and watch tv for the rest of the night, nice way to start off my exercise routine

Sean

Congratulations, Sean! Even though you've "hated" walking or running, now you have a reason to push forward -- onward and upward! If you start slowly and congratulate yourself every time you walk (record it so you can brag to yourself and everyone else), you will improve without even feeling it. After a while, you might try sort of "shuffling" as I describe it -- the slowest jog humanly possible, the same speed as walking but better for your fitness. The next thing you know, the shuffle will slowly transform to a jog . . . and who knows what you'll be doing and feeling like by this time next year! I have experience with this, so I'm not just making it up to cheer you on. Best wishes, and thanks for the info!!