Oh man...that looks bad. Sorry for your problem. Wish I new the answer toyour questionOuch Joonie, that looks very painful. I was going to suggest hand PT which is what I used when I had hand surgery, but that was before seeing your picture. I would try to get a referral to an orthopoedic dr. I've had the best luck with ones who specialize in sports ortho. They just seem to be on top of the latest procedures with the best outcomes. I hope you can fix it!
you need to first consult with a hand surgeon to get an idea of what is revversible and what is not. If your problems are strictly muscle then its reversible. If you have tendon/ligament damage on top of bone damage then you have a bigger problemOwie-
You don't want anyone but a hand specialist to deal with your hands or wrists. RA damage is soooooo different from sports injury
I am going to wait a little longer, to make sure I am going to be able to continue with Remicade since my BP meds change, before I do anything to really help improve my hands. It was just something that sparked my thinking after Lynn posted that article.
As far, as I know about my hands, they have nerve damage. Would that cause problems with rebuilding muscle in my hands and fingers?
There is so much that you really do not know the extent to of which the problems you have are when your RA is uncontrolled. It is only later when your RA symptoms are less that you get a good idea of how bad things really are or were.
As you can tell, I am still afraid to try to fix what the last 3 years has done to my body. Mostly because I am afraid I will get took off Remicade again, and then I will be back to where I was just a few short months ago. I have been getting Remicade for almost a year now, but out of that year, I have only had Remicade in me half the time. Which is quite sad if you think about it.
I hope ya'll can understand my apprehensions about trying to move forward.
Joonie
you don't have to wait to have your hands checked out. Hands you need remicade or no remicade.....see what is going on...get proper splinting which will make a world of differnce on those bad days
And I do understand your apprehension. I was 36 when I had my first knee replacement...and I should have done it several years earlier. I've had 6 more since then. I live with the damage every single day. I'm on rituxan now having blown through everything else. I am lucky that I don't have any other issues other than damaged joints. BUt the one thing these damaged joints have taught me is that you can't wait to start dealing with them. If you wait they will only get worse
If you fail remicade you do have choice...orencia. rituxan and soon to be acterma
Oh snap...that hurts me. I'd agree that a hand specialist is going to be the best bet. They could recommend the best course of action in your case. Some PT for the hands might do some good as well but I couldn't guarantee anything.
I can totally understand being apprehensive about the possibility of surgery. I had both hips relpaced at the age of 29 and REALLY didn't want to do it but came to the decision that if I wanted to walk I had to do it. Best decision of my life...the pain is gone and I can move my legs again. Now if they would just replace every other joint in my body I'd be good to go.
Best of luck to you
Bob
Don't wait there are even exercises to do while you have swelling. Sometimes things in our daily life make it worse and they teach you what NOT to do. You are never supposed to wring anything out. Because that is helping the damage. There are other dos don't they teach you.
Go to a specialist. A hand physical therapist. Even one visit would help right not. They give you exercises to take home.
I am wondering just how affective these hand excerises are if you cannot bend your fingers do to the swelling. It is not that I baby my fingers, because they are swelled, it is that the swelling is so much that there is no room for bend them. I have always tried to bend them and use them as much as I possibly can, thinking it is probably just stiffness most of the time, but it quickly became apparent that it was inflammation that limited my fingers from bending.
Thanks for the replies all! I will see if one of my Dr's will refer me to a hand specialist since now they can see just how badly damaged my hands are now that the inflammation is way down. Before a couple of my Dr's wanted to get MRI's of my hands to see just how much damage has been done to them, but they never ordered any, just talked about it. Probably were waiting for the inflammation to go down?
Its not just exercises, but what to do in your daily life to prevent it from getting worse. Holding plastic bags that have weight in them is very bad for your hands. It makes damage, so does wringing out things. its good to learn that. They do the heat with paraffin that feels great and show you what you can do.Joonie...my hand does not look nearly as bad as yours, in terms of the difference in size between the middle finger knuckle and ring finger knuckle...but in the last year, to me, it looks like my ring finger knuckle is smaller/shorter and middle is taller/bigger. Even compared withthe other hand. But I just had x-rays and they showed erosions, but not there. So I'm thinking for me it must be tendons/muscles/ligaments moving around. But yours is a pretty drastic size difference so I don't know...I have a picture and was going to try to post it but I can never figure it out!Joonie - How long did it take for your knuckles to look like the picture you posted?
A little close to 3 years, graciesmom. But I was not on meds that controlled the inflammation for the first year, just prednisone at 5mg. I noticed my knuckle starting to looking like that a little after I started Humira, and was able to feel a little bit of bone on that side. But since the last year of bad inflammation I can no longer feel bone on that side. It is just flat. And looks BAD!
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