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...
So after a year being off meds (MTX 2.5mg) I got back on it @ 5mg once a week of course & I'm also now taking Folic acid regularly. Prior to being put back on I started feeling little pain here & there & every month more joints were being affected even though the intensity hasn't really increased maybe on a level of 1-10 it's a 2-3 & moves around A LOT!
Ankles/feet have been affected the most but every once in a while a finger or 2 gets in the mix. I wake up fine, slight "tightness" in my fingers but I wouldn't call it stiffness like when I first went to my Rheumy & was diagnosed, just feels like my skin is 1/2 size too tight? If that makes sense. But no visible swelling & no redness. But I have full movement & articulation in all extremities.
Anyway, can you have the pain without the swelling or stiffness? I thought they went hand in hand? Don't get me wrong I DON'T want the other symptoms but uhhhgg this disease is so hard to track & understand.
However. Always stiff if I don't move. In the morning being the worst. Very stiff.
Joint inflammation can be very subtle and only felt by your rheum. My rheum explained this to me - they way they very gently compress the finger joints between their fingers they can feel a boggy or cushy feeling in the joint.
So the swelling may be there even if it doesn't really look like it.
I have the same "tightness" that I have had last for many hours. That to me is my best way to describe stiffness. It is different from large joint stiffness I often have in the am that lasts about 1-2 minutes. The stiffness has significantly improved since restarting my meds, as has my pain.
here comes my personal anecdotal story: the more synovial fluid I have the crappier I feel. so even with piano wrists and ballerina ankles - all the definition there and none of the swelling, I still have some pain but I have way better function and a sunnier disposition (laughing) due to less pain.
with that swelling (I am wearing small beach balls on all the joints lately) I lose function, still push the joints to function (Insist on living and doing wild and crazy crap like cooking and walking) and feel the crappiest - so it's a wide swing for me based on the longest run without an infection on a biologic and dmard combo. and it presents itself in different manners. my severity/swelling affects my function. so for some reason I have gotten into the habit of rating my own personal ra meter based on my function and my function for myself, only, is correlated to swelling.
are you at the gym? and feeling like OK about it? I bet you use that as one of your meters also, no?
depot
Haha I use the "ring tightness" test almost every morning. It pulls off & on cleanly with no "high"s spots or very little. But I would think in the morning even for someone who doesn't have RA they swell up a bit from maybe too much salt in the diet.
Hey doodlebug!
It's weird sometimes the pain lasts for a minute or 2 picks up it's "bags" moves out & goes to another joint! LOL! I dont' remember it being like that originally, it would stay put for hours or the whole day.
depotblue
Yeah I guess it was wishful thinking that I'd be that .01% that has it go intot full remission & never comes back! Dang it!!!! Hey that's cool it sounds like your Rheumy does the same exact thing that mine does, he gently squeezes the top DIP joint together, just the skin part & watches how fast the skin fold goes back to it's normal position, "I guess"?? So I'm not sure how it works though? Is it bad if it sits in the folded position or is it back if you don't have any folding at all & it just goes back to normal position quickly??
I've taken pics of my hands for the past 6 months here & there & I compared them last night & didn't see any differences but I'm not a professional so I'm sure I could be missing something. The pain I feel I describe more of a "cold" feeling almost like it's nerve related??
Anyway, YES I'm going back to the gym this Saturday, I take labs Friday so I don't want to do anything to upset those blood labwork results! Oh yes for sure I use going to the gym as a meter for sure! I haven't gone now almost 30 days.