Comments on: What is a Rheumatoid Arthritis Flare?

By: Lynette

Lynette — Sat, 05 May 2012 20:45:13 +0000

I get those bone pains. Usually after I am on my feet too long. I describe it as my legs are pinging. I will elavate them and use a hot pad on high. I can actually feel the moment the pinging stops. If I don’t rest when the pinging starts and use the hot pad the pain escalates and I’m in bed for a day or two.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Wed, 02 May 2012 13:29:06 +0000

Hi all…I am sorry that we are all here posting anything, really. Is sad that we are going through this at all, but a good thing for me is that it has made me a different person-able to see people and things that happen from a different perspective for sure. I believe that at first it seemed that EVERYTHING was a flare! But as years go by, and pain “settles” in, I notice flares. When I have a cold, do too much, stress, or sometimes for no reason…everything gets worse, or a certain area-like hips, feet, costochondritis and throw in a few secondary illnesses…then seem to get back to ‘normal’. (which is still painful, but not flared..) Does this make sense to anyone? So…my levels are pain to flare to pain… nothing really in between. I think the term ‘flare’ is completely defined by the user.

By: Leslie

Leslie — Wed, 02 May 2012 01:51:30 +0000

I think my “flares” are not just based on the physical changes happening but because I too would like to be in denial of all this disease. I call it a real flare worthy of more steroids when my patients wear out and I cannot deal with life anylonger, no amount of sleep (if I can) or isolation to silence releaves my psyche. So in summation flare= physical and mental changes together.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:28:03 +0000

Thank you so much. I very much look forward to the rheum4us.org site opening and being part of that. And I did go back and read all the prior comments.

By: Kelly Young

Kelly Young — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:51:44 +0000

we are building an awesome forum to open soon at rheum4us.org and lots of our readers use our Facebook that way but the posts disappear in a few hours. The forum will be private, searchable, and secure. And we’ll own the content. win-win.

Good luck with the baby!! Yes, so right.

By: Kelly Young

Kelly Young — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:50:12 +0000

No – no problem at all. This is great.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 21:23:22 +0000

Thank you all for your responses. Danielle, keep pressing until you get an answer. Right now I take prescription ibuprofen for the pain, which seems to start working around 1200mg or above, up to 2400mg. I have no idea why I can’t just buy IB off the shelf and take five or six, because that’s much cheaper, but it works most of the time. I only take IB if I have to work a job, otherwise I endure it (badly). Mu joints never swell, ever. Never in my life. I also don’t show bruises. If I bruise, I get the tenderness on the injury location, but 99.9% of the time there is no blueness whatsoever. I hope you get answers soon. In the mean time, dont let what people say bother you, cuz they dont get it. Keep at it.

Diane, my spreadsheet I sit down at once a day, and make myself take an average, for pain, joints in volved, temp, faitgue, meds, etc., and I have a cell I put notes in. Like today, I put in that I had excruciating arm pain (8/10, right arm, shoulder through fingertips, every joint; left arm did the same thing Tuesday) as a result of and during particular labor at work that made heavy use of that arm, so I know it wasn’t the arm all day, and that it got better after 1200mg IB. i think it’ll help me in the long run.

Dana, you and Diane are tracking your lab results, which is great. I had blood work in November by my GP, which made him refer me to a rheumy, who said is had a positve RH factor, but I dont know what else and don’t have a copy. I had second blood work at that appt, which was March, and will find out any info in May. I think I’ll request copies of blood labs at that point and going forward. All three people who replied have names beginning with D. Weird.

Kelly, not trying to hijack this comments section, sorry to make a whole big conversation. If there is abetter place for t, like a forum, please redirect me! I am grateful for your work, labor, website here, and thankful for your testimony. I know the Lord will get us through this (expecting a baby boy in end of Aug); all I have to do is walk the path he sets before me day by day.

By: Danielle

Danielle — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:26:22 +0000

Tom I don’t have a formal diagnosis yet, but am suspecting RA. I brought up my hip pain at my last doctor’s appt and they said “It could be bursitis or it could be RA, but I just want to watch it for a while”…REALLY?! I am trying to keep track of my pain and where all the pain is an how bad it is so when I go in there I dont’ forget something. Since that doctors appt. I had a time where my shoulders felt on fire and then I lost all strength in the right arm for a couple days. I have pain in my heels in the morning when I get up as well as my back. My hands have frozen while typing at work. I even had a lady here at work who is a volunteer EMT tell me my fingers look swollen and feel warm and that my right pinky finger looks slightly deformed.I have pain in my toes from time to time. I have very poor sleep because my shoulders ache at night no matter which way I lay. I used to be able to run 3 miles at a time, but now can only walk on my treadmill at a slow pace because of the hip pain. I too have heard that I need to lose weight. I am hesitant about going to the doctor though as I know of nobody in my family with RA – however I have several family members that have other AI diseases. My mom is pressuring me though (she hates seeing me struggle)so I know I’ll evenutally go in. I’m just being a procrasinator.

By: Diane

Diane — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 08:09:05 +0000

Tom, I also thought of starting a spreadsheet to track symptoms and pains. However, mine has been very erratic from the start and still jumps around all day long, so in the end I’d probably spend the whole day logging data:). If it ever “settles” I’m definitely going to start a spreadsheet, I think it would be incredibly useful to see a developing trend and to have historical data to refer back to.

At the moment I am plotting all my blood test results on a spreadsheet with some graphs and conditional formatting to show which ones are out of the “normal” range (it helps quite a lot).

By: Dana

Dana — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 00:45:24 +0000

Hi Tom – sorry to hear about your symptoms I hope you’re able to get a proper diagnosis soon, as well as proper treatment to alleviate your pain. Tracking symptoms is an excellent idea, and I know there are other patients here who do. Until recent months, I’ve been fairly stable so long as I’m on my medications, so I haven’t felt any real need to track symptoms. I recently decided to start tracking my lab results, though, and have thought about starting to chart symptoms, as well, as I’ve been in a bit of a flare. I haven’t decided how I want to do it yet, though (I hate the 1-10 pain scale), so I’ve been a bit apathetic!

On the other hand, I have been keeping an updated chart of my sed rate (measure of inflammation), and tracking how that correlates with my symptoms: http://waters-edge.blogspot.com/2012/04/sed-rate-saga-headed-in-right-direction.html It’s a start, anyways! Good luck on your journey, and please share how the tracking works for you — I know a lot of us would love to hear what works and what doesn’t for identifying trends over time.