Diffuse joint pain/stiffness, possible RA? (back pain, ankle, infections, blood)
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(Before I start, I want to say that I did have a visit with my primary care physician and they are going to do a lot of blood work).
So about a few weeks ago I started having pain/stiffness in various joints--thighs, arms, shoulders, hands. If I'm up and moving, it's not bad (I think my weak left ankle is what's the cause of any mobility issues). It's when I stopped moving or getting up from a sitting position (or if I have to bend down to like pick something up from off the ground too) then that is when the pain/stiffness (I'm not sure what it is really) starts. Like, when I drove home from work today, about 20 minutes, it was quite painful to get out of the car and then walk to the door (once I get there and have been walking for a bit, it gets better; like, I can still and have been going out hiking on a regular basis). It hurts my hands to open those little towelettes some people use to clean their glasses.
I'm just about to turn 40 and I told my mother this doesn't make any sense, I'm starting to feel like I'm 80 years old or something. This seemed to happen rather abruptly. I've never had any problem like this before except sometimes some back pain, usually in damp weather when I'm first getting out of bed.
When I went to my doctor visit yesterday, he mentioned testing for Rheumatoid Arthritis. I hadn't looked into it much because I also am having intestinal issues and I was looking more for joint/muscle pain associated with nausea/bloating/bowel issues. Now that I looked into it, the symptoms match very closely, except the weight loss (from what I recall that seems to be the only symptom missing). It mentions the hand pain which seems quite distinct (I've never in my life had any issues with pain in that area; I sprained my wrists once years ago, but they never bothered me after a certain point).
Has anyone here been diagnosed with this and have similar symptoms that led to the diagnosis? Or maybe someone's had similar symptoms and it was something else? I'm going for a blood draw tomorrow but will probably have to wait at least a week or so for the results. Just wondering if anyone has any stories to share.
Sounds like lyme disease would be a possibility if you can get a dr to test for it and if you have a strain of lyme that has a test. Ticks where you live?
I have a family member with RA. One of the defining symptoms of RA is fever and visibly swollen joints. It certainly sounds like something’s going on with you, but it doesn’t sound like RA to me. Good luck getting help.
I have RA, and have the same problem. If it is RA, get treatment asap to stop the damage from occuring.
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With the other systemic symptoms it could well be RA or another autoimmune related disease with arthritic manifestations. Many of them do that! The lab studies will give you an answer!
You might get your teeth checked since the bacteria is a trigger for RA. It gets into your joints where your immune system attacks it. Infections trigger RA.
I'd also look at the chairs and the sitting posture as that will hurt your hip flexion. I had the problem until I got rid of the cushions. Don't lean back when you sit and have the thigh muscles sit firmly against the seat. I noticed the problem never appeared when I used the stairlift chairs belonging to my mom and those were small seats made of hard plastic.
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