DIPs

[Caza]

Following on from a post on here, I thought I’d ask you knowledgeable folk what you make of my weird nail?Over time that part of my finger has become very red swollen & painful. & has very attractive lumps & bumps. But just recently the nail has dent in it. All very peculiar 🤔

[nomoreheels]

I think I can see, the pic is a little out of focus, but is it a dip in the nail, from the nail bed down? If so are you or have you been anaemic in the past 6 months or so Caza? It's a possible sign.

The lumps & bumps are possibly the beginnings of a Heberden's Node. Mine usually start at one side of the joint or the other, usually innermost. Over time the other side catches up & creates one bump over the joint. Can be painful if knocked.

[Caza in reply to nomoreheels]

Yes that’s it two hard lumps joined together & really painful 😖 if knocked. Is it OA or RD? As for anaemia I don’t know

[nomoreheels in reply to Caza]

Yes, they can! The new (& very nice) Rheumy Nurse I saw last commented on my HN's & confirmed they are caused by OA. You can also get them in the PIP joints, the middle ones more usually associated with RD, but they are called Bouchard's Nodes.

They're the most common form of OA, usually the first sign of it . How they form is by the cartilage in the joint wearing away. As the cartilage breaks down it becomes rough & the bones cannot glide smoothly past each other in that joint. When the cartilage is finally worn away enough the bones in the joint grind upon each other when we bend the finger joint, this leads to loss of the bone. Our body reacts to losing bone by growing new bone. This new bone growth is as a node next to the original bone, this is a Heberden's node.

On my worst affected, rh middle finger, it's caused the tendon to shorten so the finger has bent, although I can force it straight I can’t flex it, I've to push it with another finger. My two ring fingers are following close behind & rh little finger too. What I don't understand, & nobody seems to be able to explain it, is why some people’s hurt & other's don't. 🤔

[Caza in reply to nomoreheels]

The dip joint on my index finger the one I’m having the problems with, I can actually manually move it in & out of place. It clicks.

[nomoreheels in reply to Caza]

Eeeurgh! It was the first affected with me but it seems to have stopped growing. The middle finger next to it is far bigger. If you haven't already I'd show that to your Rheumy or Nurse.

[Caza in reply to nomoreheels]

I should of shown him a couple of weeks ago but I forgot 🤦‍♀️ Next appointment is in July. It’ll wait. It isn’t going anywhere & I dare say that not much can be done about it.