Gazelle,i am sorry your in pain this morning,i believe it could be fibro as well as ra. You need to rest now and get the flare up coming down. It is no fun having both of these diseases is it. I have both and i have had a rough night and i don't feel toppo this morning. Fatigue is the worst part of these diseases for me,i am constantly tired and i find this aspect more difficult to cope with.
Hope you soon feel brighter and keep taking the happy pills. sylvi.xx
Hi besides fibro (which I know absolutely nothing about) can I suggest you get an appointment with your GP as the symptoms also sound like polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR for short). I had it a few years ago and was put onto prednisolone which helped within 4 hours. If you explain to your GP's surgery receptionist that you really are in so much pain they may be able to fit you in today. Our GP's surgery has a few sit and wait appointments at the end of surgery perhaps yours does to.
My blood results also showed that there was something going on and because I had a recent blood test my GP was able to put me onto the prednisolone straight away and then awaited my next rheumy appointment. PMR it is covered by my rheumy team, and I would assume this happens as per normal.
I have had periods of muscle aches, pains and weakness in my arms as described above and it is very reassuring that other people have had the same thing. When I tried to describe it to my rheumatologist, she said it was probably all related to my shoulder joints. That didn't seem right to me because my shoulders seemed fine - I just couldn't lift my arms without 1 lifting the other. I had a depot medrone injection (intra muscular) soon after that and the pains all went overnight and haven't come back - so far - so I'm ok at the moment. I have looked up PMR though, and it sounds like it could definitely be that! It said you could also have associated temporal arteritis though, which sounds very serious as you could go blind! The treatment is steroids though, so at least I am covered at the moment! This site is definitely the best place to get any information. I have found out more here in the last few weeks than over the last 14 years from my rheumy! I just need to accept that I don't have everything I read about! GazelleLOL - I hope you get some suitable treatment soon - I do sympathize x
Hi. When my RA is at it's worst it's my shoulders which hurt the most and my whole arms from shoulder to finger tips hurt. My arms hurt like strained muscles and as you said I can't lift my arms. I have to physically lift my arm with the other one which is agony!
Fortunately it does go with adequate anti inflammatories etc.
Carolyn x
Hello Gazelle, I am similar to Carolyn above, when i am in a flare my arms and shoulders and knees are agony and it is very very difficult getting dressed, impossible at times. I have only been diagnosed with ra and if i get steroids it sorts it out immediately. I know they are not good for everyone but they are the only things that work for me. Even the heaviest of pain killers don't touch it. Hope you get sorted soon.
hi ,i agree with whats been said , the pain is excruciating, [excuse spelling], and nothing touches it, but i am on mtx, hydro, steriods and anti inflammatories, and that helps, it does,nt take it away completely, but i can do normal things, still cant lift it propely, but can live with that, so i agree with judi and think you should make appointment to see the doc, as they can give you something for it, such as a jab which should help, rest and take care, sue x
Hi,
I just wanted to say that, whilst I have no advice to give that hasn't been covered already, I really sympathise with how you are feeling. I'm not getting the arm pain you described, which must be awful, but am definitely feeling the fatigue now and think I need my bed for a while.
Hi, yes I agree with all, the best thing I have had is the steroid injections, on my second since March and the last one just two weeks ago, I would recomend them to anyone who has these excruiating pain and weakness, I was without MTX since March but I feel that any DMARDS will not give the relief we need when a flare or Fibro shows it's ugly head, but that's just me who's just coming through the other side of feeling really down, in pain, fatigue and weakness where by I couldn't raise my hand to mouth to brush teeth let alone anything else. Best advice is to rest rest rest, I pray you start to feel better soon and as someone said enjoy every drop of sun. All the best. Carol
I rang my doctor this morning to have a chat and of course he was not there,
I left a message asking for another doctor to ring me, a really nice guy who is
on the ball.
Just heard from another in the practice, one I refuse to see, he was useless!
I am going to up my steroids by 1ml and see if that helps.
Thanks for all your thoughts and help.
Hi - I have no advice as don't get flare ups like this any more since I started the MTX but just wanted to give sympathy and also to say that RA can affect soft tissue, muscles and tendons as well as joints so please don't hurry to assume it's fibro necessarily. Also RA causes fatigue as do the DMARDs so again this could be just part of the RA and you need a rheumy to tell you this really not a GP. Hope upping the Pred works well for you. It's horrible when the GPs you want to speak to are away and you get a duffer isn't it? Tilda xx
yes i get the muscle pains in my shoulders and had it (sorry to say) for quite a while,(think Mads and I had it at the same time) i thought as Sylvie said, it might be fibromyalgia but mine turned out to be RA and Lithesis i think its called , where the ligaments also get inflammed. Steroids helped, both injection and oral. Hope the appointment goes well next week.
Axx
I've had the arm pain too and can honestly say it was absolutely unbearable. I had two children without pain relief and Id say this was as bad on the pain scale. Luckily mine cleared up after about 24hrs but I really hope it never comes back. As far as Im aware its caused by an ra flare. Hope you feel better soon.
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Nasty rash (Methotrexate?)
So many questions!
Sticks and stones
Pain in my shoulders 
Having a hard time 
