"flare?"

I have had rheumatoid arthritis for 16 years plus, hands, feet and other joints, I have always had flare ups, they can go quiet some time and then it starts, crazy, I take naproxen when I need to but take Sulfasalzine every day, I recently started having Turmeric which is said to be a strong anti inflammatory, I have seen some articles saying it is not recommended when taking sulfasalazine so I'll see what blood tests say.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a autoimmune disease, and body goes up and down, so I reckon it's just how your immune system is at the time.

Hi Jayne, in my experience flare is when you start to ache more than usual (in my case pain never goes away completely). It may involve a single joint or multiple joints which start to ache one after another or simultaneously. It usually comes with fatigue and general bad feeling. Painkillers help. Rest helps. Sadly, being physically active helps too, as it releases natural painkillers into the blood stream. A contradiction, I know... I don't know details of your condition, but you might want to call your dr to consult if not to move the app to earlier. And you might want to change your diet, avoiding carbs (especially bread, potatoes, pasta), red meat, dairy products, certain vegs, such as potatoes and fresh pepper. Hope that you will feel better in a few days. Hang on.

My flares involve excruiating pain in my shoulders. Sharp sharp pains that gradually make it to where you can't move your arm at all. When my wrists and hands flare they swell up big time and you can't move your arm. Pain killers and prednisone.Mine usually last about a week with meds. You can't sleep or do anything but sit in a chair and sit real real still.

Hi Jayne.

im replying on behalf of my mum (83) who thought it may be of help to share her own experience of things. She was diagnosed last year. On oral MTX and still on prednisolone I'm afriad. We too have the same query about 'flares' as we had thought that maybe, the disease may hopefully stabilise for months or longer but that if unlucky, a 'flare' might occur every now and then, thereafter going away again. So far the pattern has been rather different and seems to be linked with trying to get the prednisolone down to 2.5mg. Mum can literally be not so bad on day, yet the next, complains of quite a lot of pain ( I can see that in her face ) plus hardly any grip, unable to dress self and most recently, just about able to hobble with help. These 'flares' if that's what they are can change in the course of 24 hrs and no two days ever seem to be the same. We have lots of questions about it from our rheumatoid nurse when we go back next week but I sense there is no regular or irregular pattern for anyone. It is rotten but I guess what we try to do is make the most we can of any 'good day' and try to get through the bad ones as best we can! Wishing you all the luck in the world.

paula and Doreen ( mum!)

Hi

i too am 64 , diagnosed 2 years ago and in the uk.Have you been given a phone contact of rheumy nurse ? I was given that number soon after diagnosis. I can ring with a message and they ll ring back . In the first year I rang quite a bit as more parts of my body were being affected and pain was getting worse. Each time they increased my meds or added a new one or added corticosteroid. So there are more options to bring RA under control than just mxt. I think in the first year after diagnosis a lot can develop and it takes time to get RA under control. If you don't have this service where you live then contact consultant on your appointment letter. They should be tackling RA aggressively in first months after diagnosis ( according to NICE guidelines) so don't suffer in silence. They assume you are doing well with current med unless you let them know things are getting worse.

 

Sorry, but it doesn't go away, all you can do is treat the disease and the symptoms.   A flare is generally a sudden worsening of your pain accompanied by fatigue and sometimes fever.   Everybody is different though, RA affects people in different areas of the body and in different ways, some feel no pain at all (Keith Richards - take a look at his fingers), others have excruciating pain.   Flares affect me asgenerally worsening of the pain, fevers and fatigue to a lesser degree, they do take a while to settle back to normal though.