what does RA actually FEEL like?

daylily

Hi,
I've got OA in lots of places but now my feet are really hurting especially in the night and morning. They're swollen and 'burning' and throbbing. It's the toes mainly.
My hands are the same to a lesser degree.
I've read the symptoms etc but just want to know what it feels like,
also every now and then I go all hot (like hot flushes but passed all that!).
Does this sound like RA?
Thanks in advance.
xx

tillytop

Morning Daylily

So sorry you are so hurty :???: .

The pains you describe could, I think, apply to all sorts of arthritis so it is difficult to advise and, inflammatory arthritis can be very difficult to diagnose. The "hot flushes" could be indicative of inflammation - active RA can sometimes cause a fever and a general feeling of "going down with something".

What does RA feel like? Ooh, there's a question! Difficult to describe but I will try.

My RA started in my feet. To start with it felt as if the bottom of my feet were badly bruised. Then, as it got worse it felt as if I was walking on broken glass and it was excrutiatingly painful to put my feet to the floor. I also got severe shooting, stabbing pains in the joints at the bottom of my toes, where they join my feet (if that makes sense).

My hands to start with were just very stiff and when I woke up in the morning I coudn't move them. To begin with, the stiffness eased up with use but after a while they were stiff to some extent all the time. Along with the stiffness went a burning sensation in my hands and fingers and, when touched, my skin felt as if it had been burned.

You say in your post that you have read the symptoms so you probably already know this but, in terms of the hands, my understanding is that RA and OA affect different joints. In OA it tends to be the top joints of the fingers I think, whereas in RA it is the knuckles and the middle joints. Feet are very commonly affected in RA but I am not sure if they are so commonly affected in OA.

Although there is no definitive blood test for RA/inflammatory arthritis Daylily, you could ask your doc for blood tests to check your inflammation levels to see what is going on. That could be a starting point for further discussion.

Thinking of you.

Love Tilly xxx

frogmorton

Daylilly

I have inflamatory arthritis as well as some OA neck and back

I do get hot hands and feet and also temperatures - slightly raised ones when l am flaring. I also feel 'ill' like fluey if that helps???

Suggest a quick trip to the docs for some bloods. They may yet come back negative, but a good rheumy diagnoses on symptoms not just bloods results.

Love an dhugs

Toni xx

PS T*sco do a nice cool gel which my feet love Minky suggested l get some

daylily

Thanks Tilly and Toni,
I've got to see the Doc next week anyway so I'll ask her.
take care
xx

frogmorton

Good job Dayliyyl

No harm in asking is there?

Let us know how you get on wont you?

Love

toni xx

barbara12

Hi Daylilly
Like you I have OA, Its in my back hips and one knee, but in the last few weeks my hand has joined in....it my wrist and index finger.
I have been told of my GP that RA is very hard to define, my first blood test had raised levels of inflammation, but the other ones I have had have been fine......Its can be quite a minefield.
I do hope you get some answers very soon
Take care
Barbara xx

tillytop

Good luck at the doc next week Daylily. Please do keep us posted.

Love Tilly xxx

cythna

There's two kids of pain. When joints become damaged they hurt to move, and ache, which I imagine is like the pain of OA. My doctor calls this 'mechanical pain'.

Then there's the pain during the inflamatory phase, or flare. The joints swell, they are hot, every movement hurts. In addition people feel unwell; I always get a sore throat, it is often the first sign that a flare is on the way. There may be a low fever, tiredness etc. Also RA tends to hit joints on both sides of the body ie if one knee is affected by arthritis then the other one will be too, whereas in OA someone may just have a single bad knee.

Pain is difficult to describe, but Arthritis Care had a poster years ago, with a drawing done by a child with junenile Arthritis. She has drawn herself, and drawn nails sticking into her wrists, knees and ankles. Struck a chord with me!

Good luck with the Doctor. Hope he can offer some help.

Susan

skezier

Hi Daylilly,

Its best you get this one checked out to be on the safe side.

i have oa and pa and they are going after the same joints but have a very different kind of pain.

As you know the oa is akin to a banging grinding endless pain but the pa, though not continuous, feels deep and kinda broken. Its more of a acute type feel and less of the grinding hammered feel.... I'm not explaining it very well but its a nasty pain as are all of them.

Both give me the burning but this foot thing it could be circulation and it is best you get it checked out.

I really hope its will settle and let us know what they say please?

Leaving a hope for you and your oh. ((( ))) Cris xx

tkachev

I have had R.A since 1999 and I couldn't begin to describe it! And I have OA in my ankle and I couldn't tell the difference between the OA joints and the R.A except R.A comes on anytime and OA is usually when I overdo things.
But pain is pain and they are both as bad as each other in my opinion.

Elizabeth

alarkra

Hi Daylilly,

Sounds like people have described it well here, but I thought I'd throw in my hat as well for you have have a looksie at.

The way I describe it to my friends is that it feels like I've been at the gym the previous day, working myself very hard and then I've woken up the next day and hurt all over. It's like that, but all of the time...

At the moment, for me, I'm feeling much better and am enjoying it while it lasts... when it was bad though, I had the following:

The restricted movement - taking a good hour or 2 to 'loosen up' to what was barely a real stretch with any mobility at all and I had to run my hands under cold water to get them to move at all out of the claw they'd got stuck in, **then they would going into phases throughout the day of throbbing like they had their own pulse**. The balls of my feet used to feel like I'd been out all night dancing in high heels the night before and had aching, almost bruised balls of the feet. Then there was the searing pain in my ankles, they felt like fire. And I couldn't stretch out my arms properly because it felt like the tendons were going to snap and I also suffered shooting pains down my arms. And there was the the knot-feeling in my hips. And the throbbing groin area (sadly not lusting for anyone, just really uncomfortable pain!)... And of course there was the stage when I couldn't open my jaw wide enough to eat big mouthfuls or bananas and my voicebox was even affected having a croaky voice which people used to think was because I'd been on the wine the night before and talked alot... sadly not the case!

And there was the shuffle. Not able to walk properly, just shuffle around. Which is ridiculous as I'm a 25 year old girl who had been running around like a mad thing before it all went downhill scarily fast.

Writing this has been a good thing for me - it's made me realise how far I have come over the past year as it was about this time last year that I was in full swing of shooting downhill to the point of being bedridden for 2 months... darkest time of my life.

I hope that you don't have RA on top of everything else you are going through. Best to have it checked out sharpish so that can act fast if it is the worst outcome... (((HUGS))) xx

dreamdaisy

What does it feel like? I reckon it's like all the other versions of this dross ie it makes you feel bloody awful. The PA makes me feel more 'ill' than the OA, no doubt about that. The PA also hurts in a different way to the OA. it ain't fun, daylily, I can tell you that! I wish you well. DD