Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem, autoimmune disorder. It is a disabling and painful condition which can lead to substantial loss of mobility due to pain and joint destruction. The disease is also systemic in that it often also affects many extra-articular tissues throughout the body including the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, and...
I want to learn more about flares. I know everyone's body is different but I wanted to hear some experiences about what causes flares, how long they last and how often.
My feet have been in pain for weeks and I recently developed a bump on my achilles that my podiatrist thinks is a RA nodule. I'm not on any meds yet since I'm wait for all my lab work to come back. I'm wondering if when I start the meds if the pain(flare) will go away?
My feet have been in pain for weeks and I recently developed a bump on my achilles that my podiatrist thinks is a RA nodule. I'm not on any meds yet since I'm wait for all my lab work to come back. I'm wondering if when I start the meds if the pain(flare) will go away?
When I started arava, my flares continued but were not as intense. Adding Plaquenil they stopped. Adding enbrel my pain has decreased, but not left.
Flares feel like I was beating on walls all day and broke my hands, and like I crushed my feet in a car wreck. They throb and hurt so intensely, I can't move and sit very still as much as possible. It's extreme intense pain, and I can not function at all. Can't drive, clean, do almost anything. That's a flare for me.
My ra started 9-9-13 with a flare. It lasted 5 days. Then a week with just severe normal ra pain and swelling. Then a 7 day flare. A week off. A 2 day flare. Then a couple months or so no flares while I was on 20mg pred. Methotrexate in Dec for 3 weeks and no flares. Headaches got out of control and ceased metho Dec 20 by taking 10 folics. Dec 23-24 worst flare of all started and lasted 10 days. Then saw rheumy again after the holiday week, and arava started. Sometime end of Jan had a flare that felt dumbed down thanks to the arava, in my heels only. 7 days.
Added Plaquenil soon after and voila, no more flares. So that's my flare history and the timeframe of each one so far.