I am new to this site but been reading a few posts.
I hope someone have some advise or tried something similar. I should mentoon that I live in Denmark so just general advise please.
I suffer from joint pain in my hands, wrists and feets. Mostly a burning pain but also like a dull deep pain in the bones. In the feet I also get a cold icing sensation.
My hands and feet gets stiff especially in the morning.
Been to reumatologist, but they wont do anything since my blood samples all comes back negative (rf, anti-cpp and so on). My fingers are not swollen (only a little bit I stopped wearing rings) and ultrasound shows nothing. I am just told to come back if a joint swell up.
The pain making it hard to keep working and doing everyday stuff.
Has anyone had similar symptoms or just have any advise
If you have no inflammatory markers, it would suggest that it would do no harm to do some regular exercise for your joints to try to keep them as flexible as possible. It might be worth seeing someone who could advise you on that - a physiotherapist, Alexander Technique therapist, for example, or attending a class to do something like Tai Chi or a gentle form of Yoga? It is clear that we need to keep our joints moving fo best health - but not always easy to do when they hurt!
In your position I'd also look at your diet as it seems that in early stages of RA it can be particularly helpful in slowing progress to full blown active disease. There are many very restrictive ideas out there, like the auto-immune protocol diets (AIP diet) and some of which cost money, but you can start in a simple way. So focus on steps like cutting out processed foods, things that are high in saturated fats, and excess sugary foods. Be guided by how your body feels and take it slowly. So diet, exercise and sleep may help improve your situation a lot.
Has your rheumatologist considered any other conditions. I have RA, but two or three years starting developing problems with my hips and back and feeling like my hands and feet and general fatigue were getting worse. But my bloods said no - my RA was under control. They referred me to a pain clinic to look at mechanical back issues, ignoring the other symptoms. The pain clinic addressed some of them, but were not so quick to dismiss the others, and referred me back to a different rheumatologist, who pretty quickly diagnosed fibromyalgia.
I'm not a medical expert so not suggesting this is what you have, but just that there are other conditions which have similar symptoms but don't show up in blood tests the same way as RA (or indeed in scans) Fibromyalgia is supposed to affect muscles and tendons rather than joints, but your body won't necessarily feel it that way.
So if you keep getting pain keep going back. In the meantime the obvious - ice packs when you are burning and heated pads, hot water bottles and cashmere socks when you are cold.
No the reumy just says that since my fingers aren't visible swollen it is not arthritis, come back if a joint swell up. Heat makes my joints feel really good, so spending a lot of time with my heating blanket and counting down the days until I go for a warm vacation.
Will look into mayby getting a referal to a pain clinic
Another potential is Raynaud's - It can cause the cold you are talking about in hands and feet. You can read about it here: raynauds.org/
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X-Ray's of hands & feet with RA
Anything new out there?
What now?
Hip pain
what should I consider doing
