I know this sounds kind of weird but I need to ask this question. Pardon my ignorance......
If you took all the ailments in the world and had them on a scale from 1-100, 1 being a minor cold/ankle sprain and 100 being painful cancer, where does RA rank on that scale of bad diseases/ailments?
I was just diagnos RA, read like crazy today about it but just need to get my bearings on it. I am wondering where it ranks on the disease o' meter....
Hi Zeekman, welcome to AI .It really depends on the severity of the individual.Some people get RA mildly all their life and some people are extremely disabled by it.With others it flares up and down. There are days when I think nothing can be as bad as I feel and there are days when I think I am quite normal.I have never had cancer so I have no guide on how painful that can be, I should imagine there is no other pain like it. RA is a hundred times worse than the average cold or ankle sprain when it attacks.
I hope you feel ok though.
thanks for the reply...
I must be in the moderate level because I don't have too much pain yet. I have swelling of two fingers on each hand with slight pain sometimes. Ibuprofen helps alot. How long do flares normally last?
This too is an individual thing. I was in a flare for 3 months , I didnt think I was ever going to get better.At one stage I wanted to sleep and not wake up.It was definetly my worse time. Some flares only last a few days. I think eventually we learn to live with a certain amount of pain, it becomes a way of life that you just deal with using medication and support from family and friends and there is a lot of support from so many on this boardZeek, I don't know that there is an answer to your question, although I don't believe it is a dumb question. I think everyone experiences pain differently, and like everyone believes they love music and have a good sense of humor, most of us believe we have a high threshold of pain.
You will find the right mix to help your symptoms and your pain. You will also learn to ignore or live with a certain amount of pain. I know you're scared, but everything will be okay. Keep asking questions!
Good answers above. The pain can be awful in severe cases (I was screaming with pain and couldn't even lift the glass of water to my mouth to swollow pills!) Now, after meds I don't have pain to speak of. I have stiff fingers that if I try to bend them too much they hurt. Gentle easing of the stiffness. Warm showers or ice to reduce swelling helps. You just start experimenting, take the meds and be aware you my be dropping things. My husband put burber carpeting on my kitchen floor (and cleans it for me) when I drop my coffee cup, juice glass it doesn't break. I drop a lot of things because, as you say, the fingers are stiff and swollen. Good luck