Good morning! I have been having the same problem with my right hand. There is no possible way of giving it much rest when you're right handed and I don't know if the pain will ever go away. I refuse to take Prednisone but I am on Plaquenil, however, it doesn't seem to be doing anything for the pain and swelling! I hope you get to feeling better soon and if you have any good hints for the hand pain, please let me know!

I have always used cold to help with swelling that's not relieved any other way. I used to take ibuprofen, but don't take NSAIDS any longer. Also, thry these things:

1) elevate the swollen parts. You may be able to learn another career, as a contortionist, in any event. The idea is to have the swelling above your heart.

2) massage the area immediately between the swelling and yur heart. There is a specific Swedish Massage stroke called petrissage, which promotes lymphatic drainage.

3) gently massage the swelling toward your heart. Light strokes help lymphatic drainage. Basically, you're assisting the movement of accumulated fluids to to drain into veins.

I hope this helps.

Please get off the prednisone immediately! All it does is cover up the symptoms. (Besides a huge list of side effects from weight gain to bone necrosis) My cousin was on it as her main med for 55 years, and she is crippled - completely - for eg. waiting for her THIRD hip replacement. I think you would have responded to methx already if it was "the magic bullet". When I went off it because my liver enzymes were sky high, after my first shot I felt better. But,I found that although it helps my energy level, it does nothing to stop flares. You need to start a biologic. Prednisone is classed as one of the most dangerous drugs around - it can even trigger bipolar disorder, so if you notice you are moody, when you used to be normal, it is the drug. It's effect is temporary. Plaquenil is also a very poor choice. Even if it works, it can damage your eyes permanently, like a friend I know who was on it for lupus. I found it to be completely ineffective.

The problem is, the old protocols for treating RA, always stated to start with the mildest drugs possible with the least side effects (well, research indicates that neither prednisone nor plaquenil are these "least" dangerous anymore). Then if you whine and complain enough, after you have suffered damage (like you knee your hand, or in my case, my feet and eventually 75 joints), then they will put you on the biologics, which work for most people, with some adjustment (although there are some med resistant people!) The new protocol is to treat the disease as aggressively as possible before damage occurs. If I had the drugs I am on today, when I first got ill, I would not be disabled, and I would not have just had reconstructive surgery on my foot, which is taking 10 weeks of a cast, pain, and going off meds, which caused a vocal RA nodule and voice loss.

Demand better treatment - Find drugs that do work. Forget the organic treatments - cold compresses are only temporary, and they treat symptoms, not the disease. Like taking tylenol for pneumonia. Your fever may go down, but the infection is still raging in your body, and it may kill you!

I just get so upset hearing people going through pain, suffering and being disabled, when in most cases it just isn't necessry. Be incredibly aggressive, demand biologics, find a way to get some kind of coverage (they are expensive) support Obama if necessary in his attempt to bring in a better health care system. I am Canadian with virtually free health care. Yes, it takes longer to get in to see specialist, but once you are in, I can get instant access to any of my specialists. If you are poor or middle class with the disease in the US, you may have difficulties, but it is possible to find ways to get the meds you need.
Don't be satisfied with inadequate medical care. Pain, swelling means the disease is NOT under control. Even if you get the pain and swelling down, there is still minor progression of the disease. I am not sure about the mechanism for this. But instead of being crippled in a year, it may take 30, or 40 years, because it is so slow.

Sorry to be so pushy, but I have been there done that, and I get very angry when I hear other people are being mistreated (literally) like I was. By the way, after my cousin almost died of hypoxia and a heart attack from her vocal nodule which closed her throat, her rheumatologist did nothing. I pressed her to get on at least methx. When she asked her rheumie about it he said, "I never thought of that, maybe we should try it!" 55 years of pain and suffering, when that drug has been out almost 20 years. Why didn't some doctor think to put her on it? Because she didn't demand it, and had so much damage. She feels better than in years.

Moral - don't treat symptoms, treat the disease.

Angie

Sorry, I just misread something. Methx was discovered in 1945, and research trials in 1964 showed it reduced inflammation in RA! So that is 45 years the drug has been out. That means my cousin could possibly have had it that med for 45 years. She was also a trial guinea pig for prednisone which came out in the 50's. It wasn't tested on children, and it turned out it stunted growth. She is a dwarf because of that drug. How tragic that although her parents took her to medical specialists all over North America, she had to spend winters in Arizona because the cold in Canada made the pain so much worse, but she was never given the opportunity to try methotrexate till she was 56 years old!

Angie

Thanks Angie
I am on MTX and waiting for it to start working. I am tapering off the Pred. and hope I will be able to stay off of it for a while. I am sorry to hear about your cousin, but she did not have a good Rheumy. I found a good one now and he is recommending Remicade after 3 month on MTX. so we'll see how all that goes.
I hope your Cousin is getting the help she needs now and is on the way to recovery or at least stay pain free.
bigi

My docs rule of thumb is to give these meds at least 6 weeks. If there's no discernable improvement, it's time to look into something else. Bigiblue, I'm glad you have a great doctor. I'm grateful I have one too. Abby, I'm suprised you're only on Plaquenil. My doc has me on that, but mostly as an enhancement for the MTX. That combination haas worked for me for the most part (knock wood). It may be time to check in w/your doc about other forms of treatment. Lisa

I am definitely going to check with my dr. When he put me on Plaquenil he also said there was another drug he was going to give me but he gives them one at a time because they can both cause rashes and this way he'll know which one could be the problem. I already have told him and any other dr. that listens to me that I refuse to go back on prednisone. Sometimes when the pain really hurts I wonder if I may have to eat those words but for right now I'm sticking to my guns!!! :)