why is the fatigue worse when i have a flare up

[BossyB]

Hello

Is there a reason why I feel even more tired when I have a flare up. The reason I am asking is my right hand was swollen yesterday with the usual awful pain and stiffness, however my fatigue is much more severe when these occurrences happen and I don't know why. Can anyone shed any light on this

[LavendarLady]

Hi Debbie50, The reason you feel more fatigue is your body is fighting the inflammation and trying to get it to go down. It's a bit like an engine with a bit missing and firing on 7 cylinders instead of 8! Get as much rest as you can - try putting the hand in cold water - I find that helps as well.

When the RA flares up, there is not much you can do except try to relieve the pain - I use 1000mg of paracetemol and 400mg of Nurofen as advised by my consultant. Some people find warm packs help, others find cold packs are more effective. sometimes I use both alternately but do find cold packs work for me better than the hot ones.

You can only put your feet up - try not to do too much and rest, rest, and more rest until it settles down again. Hope you feel better soon. LavendarLady xx

[BossyB in reply to LavendarLady]

Hi

Thanks for this, I am taking Arcoxia,Hydroxy and had steriod injection recently. Can I still take painkillers on top of all this. Sorry if I am asking stupid questions but don't know enough about everthing yet and not sure if I can take anything else.

[LavendarLady]

Hi Debbie50 - yes you can still take pain killers. I used to be on Hydroxy but it didn't work for me so came off it after 6 months. I do have steroid injections from time to time and also on methotrexate and anti tnf drug Enbrel. I take ordinary pain killers with those.

You can get booklets from NRAS which will tell you all about RA and what to expect. Have a look at their separate website - there is a whole list you can obtain and many are free of charge as well.

Good luck. LavendarLady xx

[Hidden]

Hi Debbie, sometimes the flare up and the inflammation causes the red blood cells to reduce which can then cause either the fatigue or anemia.

Like LL said your body is trying to fight this but can't actually win. Your in pain, your tired and feel useless, but it's the pain that actually drags you down making your body feel tired.

All you can do is rest do a little and rest some more, the flare will eventually pass with the help of extra pain relief (which doesn't help the fatigue I know) but that's the way it is with RA. You will learn how to do this, it's all part of living with RA I'm afraid.

take care and be careful.

Mand xx

[larsonsmum]

The flare ups most definitely cause me far more fatigue than normal. My problem is that despite years and years of all this, I still don't see/feel the flare-ups coming on, partly as I believe they come on with a delayed reaction to overdoing things, (or maybe I just don't acknowledge them creeping up on me), and try to keep going, which is the totally wrong thing to do, so I then get a delayed reaction in the form of almost paralysing exhaustion/fatigue. So for me, feeling more tired is partly as the others said - our bodies fighting imflammation etc, but for me it's partly this being my own worst enemy, and not resigining myself to what my body is telling me too! It's all about pacing, juggling, balancing, but getting it right is the hard part!