Flares

Flare-ups for me are pretty much what EnglishRose63 said, but I've had two that completely debilitated me. Both started with a nagging pain in my knee the first time and my shoulder the second time. I didn't pay much attention to it until it got so intense I had to lie on a heating pad. I went to bed that night and was awakened by such intense pain that I literally could not walk to the bathroom without support of a cane, railings, etc. By then the pain was in almost every major joint along with "fever" in the feet, hands, and knees. My husband had to go to work (it was his third day on the job), so I stayed in bed with the heating pad and took pain meds. I was reluctant to drink water because it was so painful to get to the bathroom. I called my doctor and he put me on prednisone for 5 days. The prednisone helped within 6 hours and within a couple of days I was fine. Now that I know the warning signs, extreme fatigue, isolated sharp pain, and stress, if I feel that way I take a 10 mg. prednisone and go to bed. So far, so good. I sincerely hope that never happens to you, but if it does hopefully you'll have an idea of what is happening.

My RA started with a flare in my right shoulder. It was excriating and lasted a week and a half. No sooner did that one stop then the left one started. After a week of pain and not sleeping I went to the doctor and made him do blood tests for mosquito diseases. It came back high on the RA factor. 3 days later both hands swelled up to basketballs, then here we went with the left shoulder again. The steroid shot took over 24 hours to set in. This is before my first visit with a specialist. I have continued on plaqineil and cellbrex and it's been 2 months now that I haven't had a flare. My shoulders and arms hurt most of the time but when they don't it's wonderful! But to answer your question IMO when you have a flare it will be debilitating and you want relief anyway you can get it.