RA in neck and/or hips | Arthritis Information

 

For anyone out there that has RA in the neck or the hips, I was wondering if you can share with me what it feels like. My RD is adamant that you can not have RA in the neck area. I keep telling her that my neck is very painful and never was before the RA dx. I'm also starting to have very painful hips and wonder if it is the RA too.

Sorry I don't have RA in neck or hips, but every check-up I go to they always get me to turn my head from side to side so I'm guessing they are checking my neck? I have neck and shoulder pain.  Had a MRI and I have arthritis.  The pain runs down my left arm, heal of my hand hurts really bad.  My left hip hurts worse than my right.  Dr. is now saying polymyalgia rheumatica. Another one for my list!!

LauraI often have pain from RA in my neck...to the point of not being able to turn my head.  As far as the hips go, I get that quite often as well.I think my hips were about the one of the first things to ever bother me. And hmmm my neck hurts. RA can effect you any where well thats my opinion, but i have read it before. Lucky for us they treat our body as a whole as far the RA is concerned. Could you imagine if we had to get a new dx for every joint and treat each joint seperatly. Kelstev- is your picture Frank from Donnie Darko? One of my favorite all-time movies. I have pain in my neck big time. I was told by my RD that my neck and back pains were probably musculoskeletal and that I need to see a physical therapist. The neck pain gets bad to the point where I can't turn my head side to side or look up and down comfortably. It sucks. I have pain in the hips from time to time as well. I figured all this stuff was RA related because I didn't have these issues before RA!! Sorry I don't have anything productive to add. I just felt like complaining. I've had neck pain for several years and I have very little range-of-motion.  One of these days I'm going to have a driving accident because it hurts to turn around enough to see oncoming cars.  Technically, it's not RA, it's OA and degenerative disc disease, but the RA drugs help a little, so who knows?  At this point I really don't care what label they put on it, just fix it please!  LOLWindancer, I have it in my neck and hips a lot! It bites too!I have it in both.  In the neck it feels like it is where it meets the shoulder area and it is deep pain inside.  Sometimes it hurts to turn right (it's in the right side)and it hurts to look down to the right etc. I have pain with both at times. I've been struggling with the neck thing for months. You're RD is wrong. There is myth that RA does not give you neck, back or hip pain. It does. Sure, a very mild RAer may only be affected in the hands and feet but that is not necessarily the norm at all.

For me, there is many sensations from this. Sometimes it feels like my spine is scrunched up and I need to be stretched out on a rack. My hips feel out and not level with each others. The neck pain can be raw and biting. I do stretch my spine out by lying on my knees on all fours. The hips, when a friend massages me, she literally pulls my legs so the hips level out again. For neck or lower back/hip pain, I find a heat pad when going to sleep effective as the body is relaxing too. And stretching is helpful too.
Re cervical spine:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10795060

Re: hips

http://www.hmc.psu.edu/healthinfo/r/rheumatoidarthritis.htm


These are only two articles of many on both subjects.

Yes, your rheumy is very wrong.


From what I've read, RA affects everything. If there's a joint, RA has a ticket to come and wreak havoc. My RD said he could tell when the Mtx started working because then I could finally turn my head and neck.  It was an agonizing pain and one of the first symptoms I had with RA. Thank you all for great information. It helps to know that I'm not alone on the RA trip. I do think my RD is being stubborn about the neck thing. She doesn't offer me any suggestions as to what could be causing the pain just that is not RA. I'm in the process of finding a new RD but have to wait until my new insurance kicks in. [QUOTE=Winddancer]Kelstev- is your picture Frank from Donnie Darko? One of my favorite all-time movies. [/QUOTE]