I am having the same kind of problem I don't want steroids either. I have been applying ice and taking ibuprofen and it finally seems to be helping. Also trying to eat anti inflammatory foods and drinking ginger tea. Good luck I know it sucks also try to get plenty of rest.

Are your hands worse in the morning when you get up. I found wrist splints helped a lot while I was sleeping. I am sorry you are suffering so. Good luck with the insurance issue.

i agree with above. break out the splints. and I have been using ice on my hands lately. i have soft and hard splints. use the hard ones as resting. use the soft ones during the day. you are young and your liver is not hosed yet from chewing a bottle of aleve weekly, so do you have a favorite NSAID that you can adopt for a week or two?

I'm in the same boat except no hands just feet/ankles/toes. I starts Remicade in about 6wks.

(Lavender) Epsom salt baths help me. Besides being relaxing, the magnesium pulls the toxins out of your body & helps the inflammation a bit. For me they do. I wear compression gloves on my hands & compression sleeves on my feet-the toes are left out. I have biofreeze & both sombra heating & cooling gels. The cooling ones don't help the swelling so much but they are soothing. I take a long bath then massage my feet the best I can if hands don't hurt too much or my husband does it. Then put on gel then my compression stuff. I also take mobic which is a rx anti-inflammatory. An Otc anti-inflammatory will help for several hours. Find something to occupy your mind & kill time as much as you can. Sometimes one minute at a time is all you can do.

Take care,
Emerald

I like Epsom salt baths also, they tend to help my pain. Also, try drinking cherry juice. I've changed up my eating habits to include more anti inflammatory food and drink and 100% cherry juice does seen to help me a bit :)

My sister swears by Epsom salt. I thinks it's Magnesium in it.
I take the magnesium supplements with my calcium & won't go without it.
I'm going to try putting Epsom salt in a spray bottle since baths are not in my schedule currently.
Splints help my hands.
Also if you can tolerate Motrin ask your dr to call in Ibuprofen 800mg.
It really helps me at times. I also split them when I feel 800mg may be to much. There is a big difference between the OTCs & prescription.
It's hard to fight that pain.
I'm so sorry your going through this because of insurance.
So many of us have & it's criminal to mess with patients health this way.
Let's hope your Enbrels approved quickly.
Blessings, Sammy