anyone else have painful ankles and wrists without being swollen?

[Lynn610]

Hi there. I was wondering if anyone else had painful wrists and ankles without the usual swelling. It's extremely painful but because there is no swelling I feel funny pointing it out to my RA doctor.

[sammiebabe70]

I use to but now its swollen with pain all the time. Do tell your RA doctor, even if he dont do nothing he will keep a note of it in your notes x

[sylvi]

My ankles are very sore and my gp tells me its my achilles tendon causing the trouble there,but at the moment both hands are painful and my left index finger swelled up at the weekend and god it has been sore.My hands are that bad this morning and i couldn't open the sauce bottle for my breakfast. I am going to ring my rheumy nurse this morning and see what she says. Tell you rheumy as soon as you can as it might be important.xx

[trace65]

Hi, I rarely get noticable swelling but alot of pain. RA presents itself in so many ways and if you are in pain definately tell your doctor xxx

[Hidden]

My answers is the combination of Sylvi and traces

[Tricia-P]

Hi

I was going to ask this question myself I never seem to get red joints but ankles shoulders etc swell, not too noticable on my finger joints but thumbs very painful.. I'm having a burst of this at the mo so I feel with you. xx

[Lynn610 in reply to Tricia-P]

Yes, my thumbs and pointer fingers hurt all the time. My pointer fingers are getting distorted. It's so nasty looking. And my knuckles are always puffy.

[jeanabelle in reply to Tricia-P]

Oh Tricia, I know just how you feel. My very first pain was in my left thumb. In fact when I first mentioned it to my GP I laughed when I said it. Like others on here I have very little swelling or redness either. I do have a lot of pain in my joints but I have heat coming from them instead of swelling. It the beginning I felt like a bit of a fraud when I saw how swollen others were. X

[micky40]

my hands a fingers are always swollen i got married last march and was dignosed in august and havent been able to wear my wedding ring since, my ankles hurt all the time but are not always swollen, but when they do they got very red and look like someone has just inflatted them,

[TweeterCal]

Hi Lynn

My ankles/feet are the worst and are the biggest source of pain for me.

I self diagnosed Haglunds Syndrome 2 months ago.

Dr's and nurses haven't really paid much attention to my feet - I keep asking them to look! Feet aren't included in the "DAS" score so RA docs and nurses dont really look at them (in my exprience.) I printed off pictures of Haglunds and showed them to GP who has finally made referral to podiatrist. Please check your ankles/achillies here:

haglundsdeformity.net/achil...

Sorry you're in pain - keep demanding attention and hopefully you will get it.

Good luck, Cal

[Lynn610]

Thanks everybody for your responses. I have an appt. with my rheumy doctor in two weeks. I will definitely mention it.

[Hidden]

Like you and Trace I get really painful wrists but rarely much swelling at all that I can see. I also have sore ankles and have sometimes had a bit of swelling and redness - one time in the tendon I couldn't get my boot zipped up for days. But mostly the pain is not matched by the level of swelling at all apart from my knuckles and fingers which are always a bit swollen nowadays. For me pain and inflammatory markers in the blood are what I go by but we are all different. Tilda x

[Lynn610]

Oh, yes, my knuckles are also pretty much swollen all the time. Are we having fun yet?

[jeanabelle in reply to Lynn610]

FUN.......what's that? LoL. X

[Hidden]

HI,

I seem to get both. Originally all the backs of my knuckles were red and swollen but that went and only came back briefly once or twice before finally disappearing. After that, for 6 mths all my PIP joints on both hands became extremely painful and on ultra-sounding them, they said they were full of fluid even though I didnt think they were very swollen so I am not sure its always obvious to the eye.

I also get heaps of bursitis and tendonitis in lots of different places and the same thing happens, sometimes the skin is red and swollen and other times its just painful.

The bone scan I had came up with inflammation in all my joints - toes ankles knees hips pelvis spine ac joints shoulders elbows wrists fingers. This also included ones that were painful but had no swelling or redness and strangely it also came up in my wrists which werent hurting at the time.

Seams to me that maybe just because redness or swelling isnt happening, it doesnt mean its not having inflammation to that joint. Like Tilda, I go by the inflammatory markers each month, they seem to correspond with my pain.

[Lynn610]

Thanks for replying. What do you mean by inflammatory markers?

[Hidden]

CRP (C-Reactive Protein) and ESR (Estimated Sedimentaion Rate) are blood tests that can be done to measure inflammation. Everyone is different but because I am on MTX and Suphasalazine, I have them done monthly with my other tests. They are not specific for RA and can be raised for pretty much any reason causing inflammation including pregnancy, the flu and high levels when there is an infection present.

-gail

[binlid]

i am sore without altof swelling barly any but feel theat out of my knees and wrists and pain so i suppose it varies person to personxxxx

[Kazwilks]

Oh yes lynn

My wrists hurt so bad I'm convinced they are broken. I've been off work six months now it's highly unlikely I will go back. I work supporting adults with high dependant needs. Unfortunately I can't do my job due to the severity of this disease. My heart goes out to you and all the people who are suffering on this site. What have we done lass to derseve this. I don't proclaim to have any quick fix which will make it better to endure but you are not alone stay strong that's all I can advise xx

[geegee963 in reply to Kazwilks]

Yep

[geegee963]

I noticed my ankles and wrists hurt more when I take melatonin? Anyone else make this connection yet?

[Simba1992 in reply to geegee963]

Are you aware that RA sufferers are adviced not to use melatonin?