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...

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sheri7 03/20/2014

I have my first doctor appointment on Monday with a rheumatologist. I had a positive RH blood test and I wrote on here a few weeks ago my symptoms. my symptoms do seem to go along with all that I have read here. I have a friend from back in the day....high school that has RA and after talking to her she thinks I really should see a rhueumy.
my question is I haven't seen anybody mention this on here since I've been reading the posts. anyway I have REALLY bad rib pain at night and it is hard to sleep.....it goes with the neck pain a lot. but last night was truly terrible and today it still feels painful and even stiff....it is hard to move and sometimes even hard to take deep breaths. my neck got better after lunch but not the ribs. has anybody else had rib pain? maybe it's not RA that's why I'm asking.
thanks for any feedback!!

Dreamchaser-Linda 03/20/2014

I have rib pain also, and was told by my Rhuemy it was RA related.
Hips, ribs, back, jaw, neck, bleh it sucks. =)~

Lin

Dreamchaser-Linda 03/20/2014

But you should have it checked, you never know if it's something else. Better to be safe.

=)

sheri7 03/20/2014

thank you Dream! it helps to have other people to talk to that understand

ILoveHuskies 03/20/2014

Your lymph nodes are on the side of your ribs also

sheri7 03/20/2014

I had no idea of that huskies.
I have had rib pain before with the neck pain and other places.
this started last night when I was sitting up in bed reading. it was a monster all night along with the neck pain. the neck pain did get better but the ribs have been really bad all night and all day so far.
thanks for the info.

Emerald22 03/20/2014

The ribcage has joints that can be affected by RA. Its called costochondritis. Personally that's one of the only joints that hasn't been affected but others have said it can be very painful.

Hope you feel better.

Thewino 03/20/2014

Sheri,

I've got rib pain on both sides. It is very, very painful.

Hang in there,
TheWino

sammyo1 03/21/2014

Rib pain was my beast of burden this past week.
Very difficult.

I had rib pain with my cervical herniations.
It's not as common as some of the other symptoms but was huge for me & that was before my RA DX.
I searched & found a few others with the rib pain but did not raise red flag with any doctors.
Also Myofascial damage, so go figure.
Freaky body I have here & finding what's causing what can be hard.

Rough week & cranky week. Ribs hurting is no fun.
Feel for you all.
Sammy

camba 03/21/2014

I think you can get pain anywhere there is a joint. Less common to start in an area like the ribs but no doubt you might have a particularly perverse RA invader.....

Good luck for Monday.

deleted_user 03/21/2014

My RA seems to settle in my ribs and I was told I had costochondritis. It is very painful but ice packs help a lot. It does eventually get better.

sheri7 03/21/2014

thank you all for your replies!! at least while I was having this rib pain it seemed to give my knees pain a rest!!
I have just felt so tired for two days. I'm finding out that this is not a pretty disease. I think having Addison's disease doesn't help the situation.
I'm assuming that fatigue must come along with RA.

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