ADT & Rheumatoid Arthritis - Advanced Prostate...

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ADT & Rheumatoid Arthritis

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Recently self diagnosed with rheumatoid-arthritis - will see MD next week-

Pretty sure that's what it is - stiff fingers with some discomfort, swollen fingers, and trigger finger.

Have noticed this very recently.

Seems to be another downside of ADT.

Bobby Mac

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greatjohn profile image
greatjohn

I've already had surgery for a trigger forefinger and thumb...and now..on the other hand..my pinky (and the surgery is not fully healed on the first hand) is starting the trigger affect. I'm not thrilled. The Surgery hand was my right hand...and much more necessary for day by day operations...chopping, slicing, dicing...opening jars & pruning, driving, etc. This road is a treacherous one...with lots of snags and snares along the way. My dream is for them to find an alternative treatment to castration (Lupron, by whatever name). I'm sure having testosterone might fix a LOT of my problems! Off to the gym to "keep on keeping on...".

John.

in reply to greatjohn

Yea, I was on ADT for two years - last 3 month Lupron injection was April 2018.

Blood draw last week showed I was still at castrate level with a T of 21.

Thankfully still undetectable PSA, but not sure if salvage radiation or castrate level is the reason.

Bobby Mac

AlanMeyer profile image
AlanMeyer in reply to greatjohn

John,

Please have a look at my reply to BobMac2 below. I don't think you should need hand surgery and I'd go further and suggest it can do you more harm than good.

Alan

I wonder if my recent back pain could be associated with rheumatoid-arthritis?

Ran2599dy profile image
Ran2599dy

I had the same thing and Dr. Myers diagnosed mine as Pseudogout.

Randy

in reply to Ran2599dy

Was it in your hand/fingers?

Ran2599dy profile image
Ran2599dy in reply to

Yes

AlanMeyer profile image
AlanMeyer

I had all of those symptoms in fingers and toes. Pain, stiffness, trigger finger. It's a well known side effect of ADT. As far as I can tell it is like rheumatoid arthritis but it's definitely NOT RA. The reason I say that it's not is that it's easily treatable and it goes away. RA is permanent and always gets worse over time.

Here are the treatments I recommend. They worked for me:

1. Heat and cold. When the fingers hurt, run hot water over them from the tap. After a minute or so, switch to cold water, then back and forth. It would relieve all of the symptoms for some time.

2. Exercise. I did massive amounts of hand exercise. Opening and closing the fists with lots of tension worked great. So did squeezing hand squeezers or rubber balls. While driving my car I'd alternately squeeze and relax my hands on the steering wheel. I did this kind of exercise a thousand or more times a day.

3. Sleep with fists clenched. If I slept with my hands flat they would be much stiffer and more painful in the morning. At first my hands would open up but it eventually got to be automatic for me to sleep that way. You can also use gloves with your hands clenched inside.

Eventually I got off ADT. The problem persisted but I worked at it with the above treatments and it completely went away. I still exercise my hands and sleep with clenched fists, but not so much as before.

Alan

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