Pain or Flareup? | Arthritis Information

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Could someone please explain the difference between the constant discomfort/pain and a flare up?  My dr was unsuccessful in trying or maybe I'm just not getting it.  I think sometimes he just wants to knock me upside the head.  Thanks, Nancy

You're funny Nancy!!!

Lulu

There IS  a difference.  At least for me.  Constant discomfort is just that CONSTANT.  My flare ups are such extreme pain that I cannot function and it feels like torture.  I have to get stronger meds.  How is that for an explanation

Peace & Love....Neasy

I have yet to tell the real difference either. And I have had this all my life. All I know is I have pain, stiffness and am achy.

But I think I have figured out my flares...lol. I think I am having a flare when my knee for example stays swelled and looking like a grapefruit, and is very stiff with pain to just move it a certain way. And it stays that way for days. One time it stayed looking and feeling like that for over a month!!

Now when I am "normal" my knee looks normal and I can bend it and it does not hurt as bad. I mostly have snap, crackles, and pops and a few swishes here and there (like fluid being moved around).

No question about my flares (which I get in feet, ankles, knees, hands, shoulders and jaw - oh, and occasionally in the sacroiliac joint!).  If I can bear weight or use the joint it is normal RA condition.  If I am incapacitated to the point where I cannot bear weight, bend the joint, hold anything, brush my teeth, wipe my hmmmmm and the only thing that helps is complete immobilization then its a flare.  Luckily the flares only last usually about 3 days - the rest of it is ongoing.  Of course, the flares trade joints and so some flares seem like they last forever - they just go visiting neighboring or opposite joints.  What a fun disease!

It is to bad that someone can not come up with a med like prednisone that you could take all the time. I just think predinsone is a miracle drug. When I am on it I can do more things but when I try to go off. I can not function. I mean I am in bed all day without it. If anyone is taking something all the time and it works like predisone, please tell me about it.

Predisone is my life saver!Thanks everybody!  That was very helpful.  I guess I thought that every ache and pain I had could be a flare up.  I think I'm getting it tho.  How's this for a deduction:  I will ALWAYS have aches and pains, and flare ups are when I have to have an injection directly into my knuckle.  

For me, everyday pain is achyness (sp?) in ALL my joints, specifically ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists, knuckles and neck.  (What else is there????

A flare-up would be when it all of a sudden is WAY worse than it was before, and I call the nurse almost in tears for an emergency appt!

Usually the doc will up Methotrexate for me, and up my Pred. for just a short little while (but like I have said recently- I am now totally off Pred, and doing ok!)

Flares need your doc's help to alleviate the escalated swelling and pain.  Sewez's description is great.  Last November my right wrist swelled and I couldn't bend it at all.  The worst pain ever!  A cortisone injection into the joint brought me back from the brink.  I cried nearly every day until I got this relief.  Little(?) aches and pains are a way of life, but I do have a life even with RA.  Flares--stay away from ALL of us!

Molly Bee

 

 


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