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 am new to the group. I was diagnosed with RA a few years ago. At first I just had alot of muscle aches in my calves and morning stiffness. Last year I had a major flare that produced chest pain, dizziness and shortness of breath. I had a steriod shot and was alot better a couple weeks after the shot.
The last few months I have had numbness in both of my hands and I have sharp and burning pain in my feet. I also have brain fog. It almost feels like my brain doesn't communicate with my hands.
Does anyone have these symptoms? I have an appointment with a new primary next month (we moved). If these are not RA symptoms I need to have some other tests ran.
Thank you,
Cindy
after you were diagnosed with RA - were any ra meds tried? I ask cause mtx gives me this kind of brain fog. i have hand stuff but i have tynosynovitis in both wrists and one wrist has been operated on. My stiffness in my feet lasts a wicked long time when first getting up. I have had fascitis and steroid injections into my feet.
your presentation will be unique but your rheumatologist would probably want to know also.
depot
I'm beginning to suspect that all of the things I experienced in the years before being diagnosed may have really been connected to this. There were so many 'sprained ankles' that didn't have a defining moment , so many mornings of achy feet ("Maybe it's plantar fasciitis"), so many days of aching muscles ("Must have worked too hard doing X job o the farm") and so on.
I have the tingling / numbness, sharp pains, and brain fog, too.
And the things might not necessarily be RA related, but the are definitely Crainbolt related, and you have the right to find answers.
I have some easy methods of memorizing, which has resulted in very high marks in my undergrad and Master's degree. But this time, I could not remember a single one of those 500 new vocabulary words. I spent two weeks writing out the words, flipping word cards, and began to wonder if I had dementia.
Then, I had a bad asthma attack and I was put on 40 mg of prednisone for my lungs. I had 2 days till the exam, and I memorized all 500 words and aced the test. I had no idea the cause, but I certainly found out what brain fog was all about.
My RA was all about joints, except for the brain fog. I had no muscles pains, although my feet were indeed a burning mess, but that was because the joints were so flared. I was not given proper treatment for the next 8 years I had RA. I was put on mthx after 3 years, but by then, it was not enough. After Celebrex got pulled off the market, I went to my rheumatologist and told him I couldn't take it anymore. He put me on a biologic and my life changed!
Not only were the flares gone, but so was the brain fog. I entered a Master's degree program, finished with a 3.98 GPA, and got quite a few awards. I even had a med failure in there, but prednisone kept me sharp enough to write papers, study and ace exams.
However, when I had to change biologics, I was doing a lot of exercising. I was lifting 15 lb free weights,. (I can't even lift those weights with two hand these days.) I had really bad muscle pain. I kept backing off and backing off on the weights. I never thought to take it to my rheumatologist. However, I had an appointment with a pain management doctor, and he touched a few trigger points. I jumped off the chair and across the room! He said "Oh you have fibromyalgia!" I had no idea.
I started on Gabapentin, 300mg times 3 times a day. It really helped, although I never got back up to the big weights again. Sigh! And Gabapentin did not give me brain fog!
Just goes to show, we are all very different. And yes, brain fog is definitely a symptom of RA in my case, but the muscle pain was fibromyalgia. Not fun!
I'm only posting this because FM was a convenient diagnosis, and I think I postponed the full onset of RA - let me say this here and now... AUTOIMMUNE DISEASE... by good, clean living. No alcoholol, best diet you could imagine and exercise that would make you wish and wonder (I was young). RA is an autoimmune disease, but I think all of us experience some other manifestation of autoimmune disorders as we progress. NO? FM, sjogrens, AS, thyroid issues, tell me more. I believe it's one and the same, all in one, blah, blah, blah.
I'm all for taking as few drugs as possible, consolidating all symptoms (as best we can) and understanding what's happening with our immune systems. No? How do we differentiate between joint, tendon and muscle pain? How do we differentiate between RA nodules, benign cysts, calcifications, whatever?
All I can add is that I had FM (faux diagnosis, I think), sero-negative RA, RA-positive RA, UC, autoimmune inner ear disease, dry eyes (sjgrens ruled out), and life is great. Don't sweat the details. Just learn how you can live comfortablyand have as much function as you need. This I beg of you, rather than worrying about whether you should take Gabapentin (sp?) or not.
Good luck and bless you all.