Stiff Hand Syndrome

[MissKota]

Hi,

I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2015 and in 2017 developed what was thought to be peripheral neuropathy. My joints, particularly my hands and feet have become progressively more painful (I take 500mg gabapentin 3 x daily) and a rheumatologist recently identified it as a combination of osteoarthritis and stiff hand syndrome.

Can anyone here give me any personal information about this please? What pain meds. /physio/support did you get?

The gabapentin isn’t stopping the pain now and the palms of my hands, particularly the knuckles at the base of my fingers and the fingers themselves are really painful.

[JeffMett]

Not had any problems myself, or you can do is see your doctor and ask yourself if you be worse without them. You always try the Pain Clinic they are very helpful and are trying different methods to help deal with pain

[MuiLu]

This is very interesting, I am suffering from the same thing, although my surgery are not keen to help. But I too have got the chronic pain at the bottom of my digits and my thumb joints are the worst. I have got both Arthritis' and its not impossible to have both, but joints and straight bones are growing at a huge rate and i'm becoming gnarled over in pain.

I use the topical cbd muscle balm from holland and barrett it holds back most of the pain but it doesn't stop the really sharp pain, which feels like its burning all the time,

Gabapentin doesn't work for me, it makes me sick and dizzy.

[MissKota in reply to MuiLu]

Hi MuiLu, so sorry to hear your Dr isn’t supportive.

The pain is so debilitating, I know. You just want to curl up in a protective ball around the painful area until it goes away, but it never does.

Last week I had a particularly bad few days where I could barely use my hands because of pain. My sister bought me a pair of compression gloves (Dr Arthritis gloves from Amazon) and surprisingly they helped. She bought the open finger tip ones so I could still use my iPad while wearing them but I’m thinking of buying the full glove to wear at night.

[MuiLu in reply to MissKota]

Thank you for your empathy MissKota, I do appreciate it. The gloves do help, but when you take them off, it feels like your fingers will drop out. I've used them in the past, the copper wired ones are pretty good.

How did you find out you had the joint disease, what did your GP do to find out it was stiff hand syndrome.?

[MissKota in reply to MuiLu]

My GP referred my to a rheumatologist because I was having severe pain in my hands and feet. It was actually him that diagnosed a combination of Stiff Hand Syndrome and osteoarthritis.

I’m waiting for an appointment to find out about treatment, which will probably be physio.

In the meantime I’m taking gabapentin and trying to find relief any way I can.

[Splodge60]

Sounds more like rheumatoid to me rather than OA. Has your doc done bloods to check for this?????

[MissKota in reply to Splodge60]

Hi Splodge, thanks for your response.

Yes, I had bloods taken plus x-rays and ultra sound scans. I’m just waiting for my next appointment to discuss the plan of action.

[MuiLu in reply to Splodge60]

Blood tests do not show Osteo arthritis and Rheumatoid arthritis, It can only be found by MRI scans of the bones/joints.

[Splodge60 in reply to MuiLu]

It has always been my understanding that RA is a very serious AutoImmune Problem and therefore some bloods will have markers indicating that. However I bow to your superior knowledge as I’m not 100% certain.

[MuiLu]

Thank you for the link, there is alot to read. I will download the information relative to me.