Muscle weakness and RA | Arthritis Information

 

The last time I had a flare this bad I was only a small child so I don't remember a lot other than the pain that I was in.  Over the last three days, I've noticed more muscle weakness in the arms and legs with the arms being particularly worriesome to me.  It feels as if my shoulder blades are stiffening up and the muscles are weak from the shoulder down and it's causing me to get the shakes too.  Is this a normal part of active RA or another nice side effect of high dose prednisone?  Or is it maybe from both?

Wasting of muscles is a sign of out of control RA and complicated by the prednisone. Yes, I think I still can do exercises with some light weights if this might help.  That is when the fatigue isn't bad.  It too has gotten worse over the last couple days I've just felt totally wiped out but have to keep pushing.  I'm seeing my RD tomorrow I guess we REALLY need to discuss new treatment. bob_h762009-01-25 18:36:40I just remember my thighs feeling really weak when I would try and go up and down stairs or walk for any period of time. I could see in the mirror that the muscles looked wasted. Once I got really low on the prednisone dose it got a lot better. I still am not 100% That's how it started for me.  The thighs feeling weak.  My only worry is that it's not going to be a reversible thing.It's a scary feeling. At the time I was not up to doing any exercise but if you can do a little it probably would help. I really never did significant exercise but after I got off the high dose of prednisone and my RA calmed down that's when I noticed improvement. I can force myself to exercise if I need to.  I just don't want to do any damage to the joints if they are inflamed.  I found my ankle weights from when I had hip replacement a few years ago and am going to start using them daily to rebuild strength.  They are only like 15-20 pounds and are adjustable by removing weight packs.  Since I have a tendency to overdo things, I'm going to have the wife take the extra weight I don't need and hide them away so I can't injure myself.  ask your RD for a script for PT buckeye2009-01-25 21:04:17I plan on asking about PT as well.  Thanks for the reminder buckeye.  What joints do you have replaced?  I've had both hips done.  Those were the worst joints affected after 23 years of RA.  The left ankle and right wrist are shot too but I can live with them as they aren't nearly as painful as the hips were.    thanks lets see I've replaced both knees, both shoulders, both elbows and my left wrist.  My right wrist is fused. I need reconstructive surgery on my feet but I'm surgeried out at the momentHi Buckeye...this is my first post.  Bob - I have no advice but I hope you find some answers soon. Sounds scary, but I'm hoping it's a temporary setback. I never bothered to post this anywhere but since I created this topic I've seen a neurologist to determine if there is any muscle disease.  He did nerve conduction studies and emg of the muscles.  All pretty normal he says and the results did not indicate any muscle disease.  The shakes that I have may be from a benign nervous condition but he's not nearly as concerned with this as he is with the apparent fact that I have terrible sleep apnea.  I'm going for a sleep study on wednesday.  He feels that this is probably the root of many of my problems like the slight hypertension, the extreme fatigue, and maybe even the feeling of being very weak.  He did a test of my actual physical strength too by giving me an object and trying to take it from me.  It took him using both hands to make it budge and even then I only released because I got a cramp.  So I'm still pretty strong that's good.
Copyright ArthritisInsight.com