So here's something strange that's been happening for a while now and wondered if anyone else has had this happen?
Everytime I take a shower it looks like all my veins come to the surface of the insides of my hands, arms and legs! My palms turn this gray color..looks like I have a hundred veins. I've NEVER had anything like this happen. It looks pretty freaky honestly. After i get out about 10 min later the veins go back to normal and palm color is normal again. I read it can be from your body over heating. I really wonder if the ra is playing a Role in this at all? I've got so many wierd things happening now to me and can't imagine what else it could be besides the ra or the meds.
Just thought I'd take a chance to see if anyone else has had this happen. I have not heard about this type of reaction so cannot advise.
Hopefully some learned forum members have experienced this type of reaction.
I would think that this needs to be taken up with your doctor.
I have low blood pressure and poor circulation. Often my feet go numb and when I look at them the soles are a weird yellow color, particularly in the morning. When I walk on the treadmill they hurt like hell and are numb at the same time, fun! Eventually over the thirty minutes they warm up and by the time I am done, the bottoms are sort of purple instead of yellow and the numbness is gone, though unfortunately not the pain.
I mentioned it to my rheumy who attributed it to my low BP. He never mentioned Reynaud's, which I think might be it. Have you read up on Reynaud's? I don't know but that it might have a bearing on your unusual reaction to the shower. There are certainly a lot of oddities that go along with RA and the medications. For example, I don't trust my nose any more after smelling smoke and burning plastic that are only in my mind. Bluehour: These things are so strange... I've just never had any health problems until after my diagnosis with RA...now all these strange things pop up.
You mentioned smelling smoke/burning plastic... that is so odd because there's been a few times where after I've been walking fast and trying to hurry into work, I get a weird smell in my nose...but cant put my finger on what it is I'm smelling...it's like a chemical smell . (no joke) It goes away after about 15 minutes. There's times also after taking methotrexate I swear I can smell it. I know that sounds wierd but , it's happening.
I now have eye problems, where it's hard to focus on things and blurriness that gets worse then clears up at different times during the day.
Thanks for your story, I feel a little better knowing it's not just me. I'm sorry your feet hurt so bad, that has got to be hard to get going in the mornings for you! Ohh, this RA stuff is so much fun to deal with!
Meme also had fits with burning smells -- to her it smelled like cigarette smoke in a smoke-free home. I think i read something about this being reported with Mtx users -- but I'm not positive. It was a while back.
and I throw this out just in case it looks familiar:
Raynaud's disease is more than simply having cold hands and cold feet, and it's not the same as frostbite. Signs and symptoms of Raynaud's depend on the frequency, duration and severity of the blood vessel spasms that underlie the disorder. Raynaud's disease symptoms include:
Cold fingers and toes
Sequence of color changes in your skin in response to cold or stress
Numb, prickly feeling or stinging pain upon warming or relief of stress
During an attack of Raynaud's, affected areas of your skin usually turn white at first. Then, the affected areas often turn blue, feel cold and numb, and your sensory perception is dulled. As circulation improves, the affected areas may turn red, throb, tingle or swell. The order of the changes of color isn't the same for all people, and not everyone experiences all three colors.
Occasionally, an attack affects just one or two fingers or toes. Attacks don't necessarily always affect the same digits. Although Raynaud's most commonly affects your fingers and toes, the condition can also affect other areas of your body, such as your nose, lips, ears and even nipples. An attack may last less than a minute to several hours.
People who have Raynaud's accompanied by another disease will likely also have signs and symptoms related to their basic underlying condition.
When to see a doctor
See your doctor right away if you have a history of severe Raynaud's and develop an ulcer or infection in one of your affected fingers or toes.
the above was from "The Mayo Clinic"I have a friend who has Dermatomyositis and Anti-Jo-1 Antisynthesase and Reynauds Phenomenon. I've seen her hands and the fingers are cold and there's a frosty white patch at the tip of the fingers [at its worst]. It's thought that Reynauds has something to do with the vascular system.
Just last week she was diagnosed with mild Pulmonary Hypertension - which is related to the anti-Jo-1 and I'm guessing, the Reynauds.......perhaps this is part of it all.
I tell you, it's like a domino effect. Figure out one problem and another comes up.
Thanks Island woman and Sam Kelly, I am having an awful time with my eyes too. Dry, blurry, floaters, difficulty focusing. I just got used to pain from RA and all the eye problems almost put me over the top into a real funk. Having my eyes bother me 24 hours a day is harder to take than pain.
I too was in great shape before RA happened. Now much of my life is spent trying to figure out if the newest weirdness means I should 1. wait and see, 2. call the doctor right away, 3. ignore it because it's too bizarre to discuss, like smelling something and being embarrassed to ask my husband if he smells it too.
You are not alone!
Bluehour: LOL! "ignore it because it's too bizarre to discuss, like smelling something and being embarrassed to ask my husband if he smells it too. "
I'm so sorry you're going through that. It is NOT fun . I totally get not knowing what to do next... All you think to yourself is..."oh great.... something else to bother my doctor about..do I worry and call the doctor, or wait it out until I go blind" I make jokes because we put up with so many things happening.
I have one eye that's worse than the other. It has floaters constantly, blurry like you said and hard to focus. My other eye no floaters, but blurry and hard to focus. I must look stupid if people are watching me... all day closing one eye squinting to see if somehow I can make it clearer again! LOL
Let me know if you do go to the doctor and what they say. I reluctantly made "another" eye appt in a few weeks and will let you know what he says.
Kelly, my eye doctor said that restasis (prescription eye drops) is a possibility. They market it on TV like it's for anyone with dry eyes, but according to him RA-induced dry eye is the only thing restasis is good for. They sting like hell and take a month to start working. I decided to hold off and try to deal with eye drops and gel. I think the dryness contributes a lot to the blurriness. Are you seeing an opthalmologist instead of an optometrist?
I make jokes too, better to laugh than cry is my motto.
I had just been thinking about how I have become used to all the strange things RA and related illnesses have changed my body.
I totally was freaking out a couple of years ago about how my body was acting. Everything was different. I guess the raynauds was a big part of it also.
Mentally it was hard for me to wrap my brain around all the strangeness. I thought I might die if left alone in the winter time as I could not tell what the actual temperature was. Well my thermostate was broken at the time.
Aww Milly, I'm sorry! I know what you mean about strange stuff happening. I have had talks with a couple family members myself of thinking I just am not going to make it much longer with how many things are happening. It's scary and like you said, hard to wrap your brain around... You see all these "normal" people doing "normal" daily things and just wish you could be one of those people again. It's like RA has taken over all my thoughts...cant get away from it.
Bluehour: yes, I am seeing an opthamologist . (tomorrow in fact :) ) He did give me samples for dry eyes, but my eyes dont seem irritated or dry, just really hard to focus and blurry.
[QUOTE=klynn141]You see all these "normal" people doing "normal" daily things and just wish you could be one of those people again. It's like RA has taken over all my thoughts...cant get away from it. [/QUOTE]
What's worse is when someone close to you tells you they don't want to hear about it anymore.
Let's just pretend it doesn't exist, right?
HA.
Saw the Opthemologist and RA dr. yesterday. Eye dr. said he thinks one of the meds is causing the muscle in the back of my eye that does the focusing some problems. Said eyes look healthy otherwise, no inflammation, dryness or pressure. Just this wierd focussing problem. Says my eyes should'nt be flucuating in vision this quickly. He said Mirtazapine (my anxiety med) he read can cause weakness and problems to that muscle, or it could be the prednisone which my RA doctor thought it might be.
I am sooo tired of starting, stopping and trying new meds! UGH!!! But I would like to be able to keep seeing as well! LOL
I am also having horrible feet pain for almost a week now, hard to walk. So the RA doctor said we are forced to use the Prednisone even though we'd like to stop, in order to get this under control unless I wanted to try Enbrel (which I keep putting off!) So she's upping my dose of Prednisone from 5mg to 20mg on a taper to try and get that down.
soooo much fun this all is!
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