New pain

[Molly717]

Hi, I have psoriatic arthritis. I have my usual pains etc with it but over the last year I have started to get points of pain on the back of my hands and on the top of my feet. The pain is excruciating if the foot or hand is pressed at that point. The area 'floats' around and feels like a nasty bruise when it's pushed or touched but is very painful. Strangely it gives no pain until it's touched. It's not swollen in that area and I can't work out if its bone, tendon or whatever that's affected. I have also had it on my palm (lowest joint of index finger) and this causes the same pain especially when I'm changing gear in my car. Does anyone else have these strange pains. Thanks for reading

[Hidden]

I have it tops of my feet. It Looks like bone. Can be very sore and swollen at times. Also hands.

[Molly717 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you Nettienet, yes very sore but not until touched. Do you have PsA?

[Hidden in reply to Molly717]

Yes I do. My feet are worse than my hands so far. Also have it in hips, knees, shoulders and tendons.

[helixhelix]

Enthesis perhaps? Esp with psoriatic arthritis.

Can't find my favourite link, but this explains a bit

arthritis-health.com/types/...

[Hidden in reply to helixhelix]

Oh wow, after 15 years of having PsA and RA, I hadn’t come across this! Explains a lot! Thanks so much for posting about it. It sounds very familiar. A few years ago one of my Achilles’ tendons was badly inflamed and very painful. (Despite being on two immunosuppressants which were both working - MTX and Enbrel.) Like my joints, it changed shape and became thickened. I used to get excruciating pain just below my knees too, where the tendon attaches. The Enbrel was great - no side effects at all - but it stopped working eventually after a few years. I went on Baricitinib this year and my fingers look the best they’ve been in years. Down side is that despite often eating only one meal a day, I can’t seem to lose weight plus I’ve had a lot of tummy upsets. Oh and when I first went on it, it triggered a nasty dose of shingles!

[Superfloozie]

Me too in my elbow (I have Psa) it’s weird and I keep meaning to show my rheumy but run out of time! I’ve been on masses of steroids for the last 5 weeks and it’s almost disappeared so I assume it’s inflammation related. But it’s a weird feeling when you touch it!

[Cheylann]

I also have Psa and experience this types of pain from pressure. Not sure if they are related to Psa but would imagine so.

[Zip1]

Me too, in elbows and hips!

[amberly87]

Molly717-

I have PsA, Psoriatic Spondylitis, Fibromyalgia, chronic headaches/migraines, Myalgia & myosotis & Trigeminal Neuralgia. The PsA is in my cervical and lumbar spine. The pain started when I was about 15-16 (which was about 15-16 years ago), and even though I got the Fibromyalgia diagnosis in 3 years it took 10 years to get the PsA diagnosis. I’m guessing that’s why mine is so bad. It started in my neck, then spread to shoulders, then hips, then arms, knees, feet and hands. I do get weird pains all over.

The way the pain feels varies day to day, but can feel like my muscles, tendons and bones are too short for my body and always being stretched to their max. Plus I have chronic knots that never go away. My extremities can feel like balloons that want to pop because my bones are trying to push out of my skin. Sometimes my muscles feel bruised when touched (even though, as you said, they don’t hurt until touched) or I can feel the way I do when getting the flu. The pain location varies day to day just as much as the way the pain feels.

Although it won’t make the pain stop, I try to use hand compression gloves when my fingers hurt and it seems to control the swelling some. Maybe compression socks would help for the feet.

All of the inflammation we experience from PsA leads to weak muscles, bone loss and bone overgrowth near tendons and ligaments. I’m guessing the weakness in our bones leads to the pain, but I’m only theorizing. Plus, when we flare the inflammation pushes on the bones (once again I’m hypothesizing) and when we touch it the added pressure is excruciating. These are just some ideas I’ve developed from years of living with it, my experiences and my research. Also, try keeping a log about your pain and what the weather is. While I don’t hurt as bad WHEN it’s raining, I hurt SO bad when a storm or cold from is moving in. My pain literally instantly decreases once it starts raining or a storm is on top of me and not moving in. Weather, stress and hormones are MAJOR causes of flare ups for me.