Fed up!

I collapsed a while back and that was followed by three more collapses during the next hour.   Ambulance came and took me to hospital where I had every test you can imagine but they couldn't find a reason for the collapse.   RA doesn't just affect the joints, it also affects muscles, tendons, heart, lungs, eyes, practically every part of your body.   RA was once called or referred to as The Muscle Wasting Disease.

My feet are affected as well, they feel like they are numb but I can still feel them.   Big toe on the left foot and balls of both feet are swollen.   Rheumatologist picked up that my toes weren't touching the ground anymore.

RA and it's many offshoots can affect all the joints in your toes, its a guessing game where it will affect next.

That's one of the things the Rheumatologists do, get you to make a fist.   They also look to see if your toes actually touch the ground.

That's one of the things the Rheumatologists do, get you to make a fist.   They also look to see if your toes actually touch the ground.   Diagnosis?   Nope it's only a guess, there are are no definitive tests for RA.   The specialist will ask a lot of questions, examine your joints, examine the results from the bloods, then put all the information together and make an educated guess.   If you're lucky he will guess right the first time.   In my case he was wrong, he now thinks I may have psoriatic arthritis.

Hi Clare, sorry to hear you are waiting on a diagnosis, it's a frustrating and painful time. I had several different diagnoses (fibro myalgia, poly myalgia rheumatic a) before they settled on RA, even then, although they started me on MTX it was still guesswork until they gave me a bone scan which showed up massive inflammation in hands, wrists, ankles and feet. I get pain in the bones at base of toes but I also get like a stabbing pain through the end of my toes, like someone has driven a needle under the nail, makes me leap a bit. My hands want to close all the time and to open them feels like stretching elastic, as soon as I stop concentrating on them I find them closed again. Funnily though I can't make a fist or pick up things. Like Tony said the feeling in my feet and ankles feels like I have stockings on so I can feel them but not directly, this along with burning feet was one of my first signs, I now know it's inflammation that causes it.

watch out for signs that you may not know are connected, make notes on how you feel each day and you could see a pattern emerge. One sign I had which I didn't realise was RA was muscle weakness which came and went. I kept saying my tyres were down on my car as the steering was heavy but when they were checked they were inflated ok. An hour later my steering was ok again! Some mornings I couldn't hold a hairdryer and thought I'd just slept badly. Good luck, hope you get relief soon.

 

Hi, Clare:  I am glad you will be seeing a rheumatologist. He/she should be good at listening and observing. The RA diagnosis relies on many clues besides your blood tests (although they are important). I am negative, so far, for the rheumatoid factor but that may change in time. Bring up anything you consider abnormal to your rheumatologist. It may be related. For example, I suddenly developed pimples around my lips and had very chapped lips to boot. I mentioned that and he immediately prescribed folic acid as mtx blocks its uptake. Then I had to go to a predigested type of folic acid and everything magically cleared up. I will see him next week and I will mention how once in a while my right leg suddenly collapses under me when I stand up. It may or may not be related. 

As for your symptoms, I also have joint pains in my feet, hands, and wrists that come and go. Right now I have chondritis in my rib cage. 

As I often say, this is a club I would rather not have to belong to.

Best to you....