The Right Place??? | Arthritis Information

 

I don't know if I'm in the right place or not.  Yes I was diagnosed with RA 3-4 years ago.  After the initial onset involving both knees, then both feet, I was pain free until last December.  Since then I have had pain in one joint at a time, then it moves to another joint or the other side.  Thank God I haven't had both shoulders or both hands go whacko at the same time.  Have any of you had pain in only one joint at a time, usually lasting only 4-5 days before moving on?  My understanding of RA was that the lateral joints hurt at the same time.  Right?  Wrong? 

Hello Welcome to AI! welcome.....lake..... I know when mine first started, I had pain in just my left shoulder...lasted for about 3 weeks, then went to my right for about 3 weeks....then, it hit both and started moving on to other joints.  Now, i tend to get pain in both sides at the same time, though one is usually worse then the otherWelcome!
While RA is symmetrical in presentation and diagnosis, it doesn't mean that one side won't act up on its own. You might be experiencing any number of odd things going on. I'm not dx'd yet, and while I've experienced symmetrical issues, I'll have one joint be aggravating while its counterpart does nothing or hurts in a different way.

Based on what I read here, a lot of RA behavior is baffling in its lack of logic.
When ever I had flares in the past it would travel from one joint to the next never in one spot for over a couple of days or so . Recently though I have the flare in my knee and ankle Welcome!!

it's a 50/50 shot with me. Sometimes its "both sides" acting up, sometimes its just one at a time.

Is this something new for you(pain on one side at a time)? Have you just started into a flare? What meds are you on? :)
http://www.palindromicrheumatism.org/ Maimi....."But I will keep working  to move that pain not just to somewhere else but just out . I'm tired of this !!" I tend to have more difficulty with one side than the other.  My Rd said that is not unusual.  Afterall, we tend to be dominant on one side so that is often the one to act up more.Katie - at this time, I only use NSAIDs and topicals.  If the pain keeps me awake, I take pain pills just to get some sleep.  It's tough going to work on no sleep :) Well good luck with the NSAIDs! Glad they work for you :) Katie - I can't really say the NSAIDs "work" for me, but I take them anyway.  I've been resisting getting into the med routine, knowing that once I start, I'm there for life.  I'm pretty hard headed about that.  The one sided pain kicked in mid-December and has been the norm since then.  Thank goodness, I know I couldn't function if both shoulders or hands were in equal pain.  I can't say there is a particular time of the day when the pain pops in.  Sometimes it's in the middle of the night, sometimes it creeps on during the course of the day.  I can say the pain (regardless of when it starts) seems to be worse in the evening or the middle of the night.  Oftentimes, by morning, the pain has been minimized enough that I can take a couple of Aleve and go on to work.