RA -vs- Fibro | Arthritis Information

How do you tell which is fibro & which is RA?

I have read all the symptoms for Fibro and they just seem the same as RA, or what I have now. Ditto that Julie, I can't work it out really either, other than that my muscles are really tender to touch and almost like crampy when I get up in the morning, my leg muscles are really sore. I do get a lot of nerve pain and my Rheumy says that is fibro problems? Good luck, Janie. Good question, I feel when my hands and feet ache its RA. My back kills me as well as my neck and shoulders I blame that on Fibro!My doc says I have both??

I have both and while I'm not great at telling them apart, here's what I can offer, just in my experience/opinion, and not as absolutes:

Pain in the hands and feet tends to be RA, unless it is "shooting" nerve pain, then it could be caused by either RA or FM
Pain in the elbows and knees could be either one
Pain in the back, neck and upper chest tend to be FM
Facial pain tends to be FM
Pain in the muscles and soft tissue, especially sore tender-type pain, tends to be FM
Burning pain can be either one, "pulling" pain tends to be FM
If pressing on the pain makes it worse, it is more likely to be from FM
Numbness could be either one, for me it only started with the RA
Localized stiffness and swelling tend to be RA, widespread stiffness may be FM
Fatigue is probably a combination of both, plus the meds

I hope this is helpful.

Very helpful InnerGlow. I do not know how I did not even read this post. Oh wait.... I know it was during that time I was taking all my sleepy meds and was not up to my old self.

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I guess that I have been experiencing the most right now, IS fibro. Man... new things throw me for a loop.

Time to tame a new beast.

Pain in the back, neck and upper chest tend to be FM

Here's the tender point map from mayoclinic.com:

You can see the points in the upper back/shoulder area, and then down around the hip area. While these points are used as a diagnostic tool, the pain doesn't have to be limited to these points, and may be different from these points. For example, I get bad fibro pain on the front of my thighs. It feels different from RA pain...not only is it not "in the joint" but it is duller and more tender, rather than the acute specific pain I get from RA.

My low back pain is related to my herniated discs, however a lot of my pain comes from my sacroiliac joints and no one has managed to tell me yet what that is (fibro, RA or something else). Lately I have been having some mid-back pain that feels like fibro.

I cannot be too much help, kweenb, but my back pain is in my upper back(where shoulder blades are), neck and I get burning in my shoulder blades when I move my arms. The more I move my arms when shoulder blades burn, the more stiff and hurting I become.

Now, I have been chalking this lower back pain, close to where my tailbone is to RA, but seems it is effected by my hips, which are stiff and hurt. But not RA hurt, they are just... well hard explain it. They feel weighted down and stiff, sore, and if I bump into something it feels like someone punched me.

That is how a lot of the pain, I have been in has been like, as of lately. Like someone punched me or even like I fell from a 3 story building and landed on the ground.

The pred does not help, which I felt was weird because I respond so well to pred, even the low dose. But for a while now... the pred has not helped this pain & stiffness. I just seems REALLY new to me. Which if it is the fibro, then it is new to me.

I wish there was a way for me to be able to tell definative which is what and instead of me having to guess and take all the sleepy meds and still not know which to take to help, instead of taking them all and hope one of them knocks it out.