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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stephgas 07/21/2014

so i'm not currently on any medications. i'm occasionally taking advil, and by 'occasionally' i mean maybe three or four times a week. i'm realizing that being med-free isn't really any more painful or anything than being on mtx and enbrel or mtx and humira or mtx alone.

now i don't feel that any of my fingers or other limbs are more swollen than usual, but my fingers kind of itch. so do my feet. i feel like it's a strange itch, not like that my skin actually itches but... ugh it's hard to explain. does anyone know what i'm talking about?

SecretSurvivor 07/21/2014

I'm not sure about the itching part, but aren't you concerned about joint damage now that you're not on any RA meds?

ILoveHuskies 07/21/2014

I know what your talking about. It's the nerves under your skin that itch.
I get itchy in my shoulder blade a lot. My skin doesn't itch. It's a deeper itch like nerves or blood itch.

stephgas 07/21/2014

@secretsurvivor, i guess. i failed enbrel and humira and was sick of feeling worse because of the meds. when i stopped taking humira in... hmm, june? i think it was june... i decided to stop taking mtx as well and see what happened. i'm going back to a rheumy next month and will probably start more meds, but i'm not sure what. i'll also be asking for imaging to see if we can pinpoint the damage. i guess i'm concerned about damage, but if we have pain we could be getting damage. i've had pain the whole time - the medications never helps. so conceivably i've been experiencing damage this entire time.

@ilovehuskies, that sounds about right. it's under the skin - when i try to like itch it, it doesn't help. at all. i had a pretty busy weekend and went crazy food-wise - lots of meat, particularly bacon, lots of processed stuff that i normally wouldn't eat that much of... i think that has something to do with it.

Emerald22 07/21/2014

My swollen feet it like crazy. It's usually on the soles near the heel and the itch is deep like I can never reach it...with anything! Not my fingers or anything I use to scratch it with. Never really thought about it being nerves but maybe so.

carrottop50 07/21/2014

Yes on the itch.... this last weekend my hands itched and were swollen and slightly red... now I have another bump/knot - more damage I guess.
As for the itch I can't seem to get to it...yes it does seem to be under the skin... sometimes I think it is the bones in my hands that itch....I wonder if bones can itch... well I know that they sure can hurt so why not itch.

deleted_user 07/22/2014

I'm glad to know that others itch. Sometimes it's a real nuisance.

deleted_user 07/22/2014

I get that too, particularly when my hands are extra swollen. It almost seems like it's because the skin is so tight from swelling, but that's just speculation. Scratching doesn't help and pain meds make it oh so much worse.

I hope you find the med cocktail that's right for you. I know the feeling, being miserable while on all the drugs is frustrating. But for me anyway, it takes a good two months on them to feel any considerable difference and after 3 months I'm much more mobile and able to do more. Now I'm tackling my environment, hoping that I can make changes to avoid all the viruses, which mutate into bacterial infections and keep me off meds.

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