Are RA joints more prone to injury

Hi,

I'm also on hydroxychloroquine and my RA is well controlled but I still get pain in various joints and I have noticed that the knuckle at the base of my forefinger on my right hand has started to get quite painful as well as a little bit across the rest of my knuckles. The only thing I can think of is that I use that finger to tap out on my tablet and I do use it daily. So maybe its a bit like repetitive strain injury. Before I was diagnosed with RA I used to get a lot of pain in the balls of my feet and could never understand why. Thought it was down to the shoes I wore or just the walk uphill home from town. Got diagnosed in 2007 and that problem seemed to disappear. Its only in the last few days or so I've notice some pain in that area again plus some toe joints. I'm presuming its the RA. I see the consultant in

Hi Vickie

I am convinced that this is the case. My hands are always swollen and sore but if I try to put any extra strain on the joints by example cutting or chopping veg or even cutting up food on my plate at mealtimes I can tell the difference in the normal level of pain for quite a while. I have just increased my prednisolone back up again as I had swollen tingling in the fingers of my right hand again this morning and my shoulders were 'going mad'. It's now lunchtime and things are a bit better but still haven't worked up to a shower as drying off with a towel is so painful, I use a hand towel one not a bath sheet as that is so heavy and if just washing hands and face I use a dry face flannel as a towel as I find it easier. I think you have to work out strategies that work for you to make life easier.

Oops sent before I'd finished.....I'm due to see consultant in August so will hopefully get some answers. I think you are probably right in thinking our joints are more prone to if not injury then pain when over worked..or a lot of the time just used normally! I find holding something like a phone for a length of time difficult and constantly swap hands to ease the pain..same with trying g to read a book. So many small everyday things can be difficult. Something I've just started to find a bit hard is pressing the flush down on the cistern in our loo! Seems such a simple thing and embarrassing to admit is a bit difficult.I can certainly understand the probs you've had.Thing is with a lot of things that we might find a bit difficult or painful we can't just stop doing them. I can't stop flushing the loo.....and I'm sure you want to continue having nice bubble baths. Maybe you could swap to a liquid bubble bath.....and I'll have to change to a chain! Ha ha.

Hi Vickie

I experience the same as you though unfortunately can't explain it medically.  When my joints - and they are only my small joints - fingers, wrists, toes - are swollen, stiff and  inflamed, there are things I just can't do.  When they are relatively OK however, thanks to medication, relatively mundane things suddenly cause problems eg turning a key in a lock that has become a bit stiff, opening and closing the mechanism on a lever arch file at a job I was doing, to file some paper work for an afternoon recently.  I can only imagine there is less of the fluid to protect those small joints than there used to be and I guess the joints are wearing away fractionally.

Hi all, it was re assuring to see everybody's replies, I think we are all in the same boat and it's good to have a bit of a laugh about it sometimes!

Because I still work I have recently had an occupational health assessment to advise my employers (schools, basically) on reasonable adjustments they need to make so I am not disadvantaged at work - seating, computer station etc

Can you imagine if this applied to the home, too?  This morning I washed my hair as usual and grabbed the nearest towel which was a bath towel, 30 seconds later my hands and my neck hurt from this  'heavy' 

Perhaps we were all designed to be princesses who had things handed to us  as and when required,.....how boring would that be though!!  I have recently had several days of just going to bed after work by 8pm to feel OK for work the next day and it was not good!

Thank goodness for medication.

Anne