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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Skin tenderness - fibromyalgia??

goawayRA
goawayRA
Hi all,

Hope everyone is feeling well this week. Wondering if anyone else experiences a weird symptom I've been dealing with ...

My joint pain and stiffness have greatly subsided since starting humira, however, I've noticed I've been having severe skin tenderness in certain areas of my body. It's always my upper back, sometimes my scalp, my outer hip area.. And it feels like I'm badly bruised or sunburned. Its so bad that even my clothes touching it irritates it. In my research about the symptoms, "fibromyalgia" always comes up. I'm weary of having that diagnosis added to my medical record because I know that MANY doctors dismiss this as a fictitious diagnosis. Just awful.

RA hypersensitivity? Fibromyalgia? Thoughts?
deleted_user
deleted_user
I am dealing with almost the exact same thing right now. I also only come up with Fibromyalgia from my symptoms. My sensitivity started in my shoulders and my chest and then moved into my ribs, hips, and thighs. My son hugging me almost brought me to tears.

I don't have an answer, but wanted to throw out a "me too".
goawayRA
goawayRA
Thanks for your input!! Good to know others feel these symptoms too and understand! It's a little better today but I also slept in this morning. I think it's all RA and stress related personally!
deleted_user
deleted_user
I do have both RA and fibro. my first rheumy 'didn't believe in fribromyalgia' either so i went a long time without actually getting the diagnosis and focused treatment for it.

i describe my skin tenderness as having a bad sunburn. taking neurontin has helped me with that. the only thing is that every 6-12 months we have to increase the dosage or the sunburny symptoms come back.
deleted_user
deleted_user
When I started taking medication for my RA that skin sensitivity went away, before though it hurt to pull a blanket up over my body, you had to be very careful, so painful. I feel ya!