My main problem, apart from walking etc., is my left hand. From various posts I've learned that many have severe hand problems and ask for your thoughts. Because I can still use the right hand I've been favouring the left, hardly using it at all. Lately I've been wondering if this is the wrong approach so would like to hear how much you use your bad hands and what the sensations are like. Best wishes to all RA sufferers, hope you have some good hours today.
Dessy, you need to have your doctor take films and see what is happening with this hand. Lack of use is not a good solution. If you don't find out what is going on and why, you might lose use of it permanently.
Any time one joint or one part of your body is hurting much more than the others, you want it fully investigated. If you don't you may be living with damage for the rest of your life.
Dessy,
My arthritis is mainly in my hands. I'd been complaining to my dr. for 4 or 5 years about the pain but we could never find out what exactly was causing it except for the extensive needlework I use to do. Finally this year after realizing my hands were getting downright deformed, I went to a rheumatologist, had a MRI, and he diagnosed me. By the way, my blood work has always been ra negative. Anyway, my right hand was always worse so I favored my left. In the last 3 months my left has become as deformed as my right. I know that with arthritis it's supposed to be good to keep moving but it's hard as you know when there is so much pain. I don't think I answered your question. I'm sorry. I just don't know.
p.s. I'm on plaquenil, mtx, and prednisone and I've actually felt better the last two days!!My pain is often in the palm of my hand. It feels like the fascia (muscle covering) is tight. It's so wierd.That is strange, Emma. My palm is the one place in my hand that doesn't hurt. That sounds like the pain I was having in my feet, before the MTX & Arava kicked in. They used to feel as though they were being torn apart from the inside. I hated stretching them or standing on them.
Thank you all for the replies.
Deanna, I think you are spot on and in fact I'm seeing a hand surgeon in a couple of weeks to see if there's a chance of surgical relief. The thought of long term loss is kinda scary.
Miles2go, I expected it to be my right hand as I used to do a lot of one finger typing. When the RA started at Christmas time the right was pretty bad but with MTX seems to have cleared up leaving only the left. Sorry to read that you now have two bad hands, everything you do must be so difficult and frustrating.
No palm pain but my feet feel as if they don't belong to me, lumps of wood, actually and sore. And my brain doesn't seem to talk to my feet anymore. Sometimes in bed my feet will touch, I experience a wierd sensation and say "what was that?"