Swelling?

[Louis-]

Hi everyone, quick question regarding swelling only diagnosed in April with seronegative inflammatory arthritis and still getting my head round things . So I am have a flare up and the swelling is alway worse on my right side ( I am right handed) I still get swelling on left just not as bad although my hips are both bad at min .dose anyone else get this as I have been told it should be same on both sides ?

[sylvi]

Rubbish i started with RA in my right side and i am right handed as well. It is now affect my left index finger and it has kept me up last night as well.xxxx

[Caza]

Hi, yes sometimes left sometimes right, sometimes one side is worse than the other & sometimes they're both the same. Hope this helps & sorry that you've had to join our club

[helixhelix]

Classic RA is symmetrical. However it is a very variable disease so many, many people don't have symmetrical pain or swelling - but still have inflammatory arthritis of one sort or another.

[Nettac]

Depends on the type of inflammatory arthritis. I have PsA which is often on one side...though I have it bilaterally on knees, hips, shoulders and feet !

[Hidden]

As others have said the answer is basically 'rubbish!'.

It seems to me that you've touched on one of the worst aspects of rheumatology services which is a tendency to fall back on assumptions about inflammatory arthritis that the best practitioners binned years ago.

If a person's diagnosis is not 100% certain, it seems reasonable to diagnose 'inflammatory arthritis' while waiting for the picture to become clearer. However, some rheumys and rheumy nurses will then treat the disease as if it is RA, disregarding the possible patterns and symptoms of other forms of inflammatory arthritis. And then they may again fall back on more fixed and old-fashioned notions about RA such as that it is always symmetrical.

It's just lazy thinking but it surprises me still. I always expect doctors to know a few things about the disease. Next time you have an appointment can you pick up a few leaflets about different forms of inflammatory arthritis? Or google Arthritis Research UK who produce the leaflets and write down the key features of different forms of inflammatory arthritis. I have met practitioners who deny some of the key features of PsA (which I have) although those features are clearly listed on the leaflet they themselves gave me!

[Louis- in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for your reply. I really don't want to have ra i know you can't chose there things but the more information I have the better i can make decisions on treatment. All my bloods come back as normal but I keep swelling up on my hands, ankleso and knees but it can be uneven as I said I have had one jab of steroids and it was really great no pain on swelling and more energy for 7 weeks now it's all back and my hips are joining in witch makes it hard to sleep. Not back to hospital till Aug hopefully they can help .

[Caza in reply to Louis-]

My bloods have always been borderline normal (I've no idea what that means) I have zero negative RD

[iAce]

Funnily enough I have it worse on the top left of my body and the bottom right of my body so when I was told its 'usually symmetrical' I said well I'm obviously not usual lol!

My left arm and hand joints and right leg and feet joints are always the worst and I have now been suffering terribly with hip pain and am now having test done to establish the cause.

Moral of the story is just go off of what you feel and is happening to you as we all different.

[marie66 in reply to iAce]

Snap! Me too with the top left and bottom right pattern. How strange we all are! M x

[fluffness]

Hi I was diagnosed last year. All of my blood work was normal but inflammation and they said I had RA.

[GranAmie]

I was told swelling is usually bilateral but 4me it is worse on left side [hand, wrist , ankle]. I am seropostive, lefthanded female 75.