Good question. I am curious too. Anything to get a little relief will help.

Sorry, but Morphine quite simply. Only if it is unacceptable though. All other pain is managed as my new daily experiences. I do have to watch my reaching for the caffiene when the fatigue is really bad. Old habits.

Whenever I feel a flare or not feeling well and like I am going to crash, I stop and get in the bed. Take my pain medicine and rest. I just keep taking my pain medicine around the clock until the pain starts to subside. Sometimes like yesterday the pain is so bad that I get a migraine. When that happens, I take both prescription medications. For headache and RA pain. The main thing is to stop what you are doing and try to rest. Elevate your feet and do a bed activity.(lap top, crocheting, reading).

I'm with Christine. I had this happen this past weekend. I could feel the flare starting on Friday about midday. I got home as soon as I could and rested. Friday night was un-fun, and Saturday was challenging.

For me, I've noticed that high RA pain equals high anxiety for me. Once the doors open for pain-related anxiety, the other anxieties escape their cages too. I did a lot of distracting and resting yesterday.

Sunday night, and I feel quite a bit better now. All meds are in current dosage, and the flare has abated.

Good luck and take care!

Ice. In addition to pain meds, rest, elevation. I am so burned out on ice! But when my husband hears me groaning outloud in pain, he gets me the ice. Sometimes I'll have ice packs on 6 separate joints at a time. I know ice doesn't work for everyone but it does take the edge off for me.

Bag of frozen peas on and off the body part all day. Bed rest. Heating pad. Prednisone.

pain medicine. heating pad. ice.... nothing truly makes the pain go away except for time. sucks. :)

Like many here, I rest up. My rest is vegging on the couch. I get soothing with a heating pad as I've always been sensitive to cold and it tends to hurt more.
I also ask my husband to gently massage or even touch my painful parts... and scratch my itches... darn I hate the itching!

Great tips.......from a lesson I need to learn.

Thanks for the ideas......

Marianne

Interesting replies. Nuttermom mentions ice and heating pads. I know both heat and ice are recommended in various literature and I never know which -one of reasons I wondered about everyone else. also truly hoping for that New Idea..... Dont you want to scream when we take these horrible meds that do harm in themselves and then still get thumped!?

As soon as you feel it coming, listen to your body and slow down. Curl up on the couch with a heat pack and a quilt and just rest. Pain meds are definitely appropriate when needed, as well as prednisone when needed.

When I first got RA, a physio did a hot wax with one arm and a ice bath with the other. The heat made the pain so intense I was screaming for her to rip off the wax. The cold helped a bit.

Now that the flares are under control, I do use ice if I get a small one. But I do like heat for muscle pains, which maybe will be less since I got a bike lesson from my son about putting too much burn on the muscles. Who knew?

I keep a stock of favorite movies (you know the ones you can watch 50 times and still enjoy) on hand for those days when I crash. I sleep as much as possible, watch those movies when I can't sleep, heat usually is more comforting to me than ice...and I send my brother out to buy me some comfort food. I've had several days like this recently--just feeling like a truck hit me, but I'm getting better at listening to my body and giving myself permission to just curl up in a fetal position if need be. Good luck to you!

I was hoping to find the magic answer reading this thread lol I guess there really isnt one. For me the worst of my pain always occurs over night and there is nothing I can do but wait it out. I am awake all night when this happens and I often wonder why the worst is at night? Is it because we are less mobile?

If it's swelling--Ice
If it hurts-- warmth

My 'hurt' spots tend to be feet, fingers, and lower back. EVERY day I try to be sure that I don't stand on concrete for too long. If I do, then it's recliner and foot elevation, ice and heat (alternate).

In bed, I sleep with a pillow under the knees to take the strain off the lower back.

If I think it's going to be bad, a little prednisone and/or Ibuprofen comes my way.