It could be described as the hands feeling weak. But it's more like my hands are stiff, and there's a spring that I'm having to press against to curl the fingers closed - it's harder to close them than normal.
It's not painful unless I try to force them closed all the way (though I've been having some aches & pains apart from this too - general hand achiness when I've slept too little and/or typed too much, and an occasional sharp burning pain in my right thumb.)
The stiffness seems to get worse during the night, instead of better (which makes me suspect rheumatoid arthritis). But it doesn't go away completely during the day either. This started happening in March, varying in intensity since then. So I'm wondering if it could be anything besides arthritis, as it seems odd for arthritis to come on so suddenly.
Yeah, it can sort of come out of nowhere (my mom had it. I don't seem to but... *knocks wood* they say it can be heredity so I never take not having it for granted).
My first guess before seeing you suspecting RA was "inflammation" but in a long story short sort of way, it's almost the same thing (wherein the immune system simply goes off the wall attacking itself via RA).
My mom took no meds ever for RA (they didn't really have them when she got it; by the time they did she really didn't want them, despite how bad it was; she'd adjusted, I guess) so if it ever gets that far with you (hope not) I have no idea on that.
From the little I've read, there's still no real meds for fixing the root cause of RA (whatever is causing the inflammation), only for reducing the inflammation. Does that match with what you know?
My mom has had pain in her thumb joints for decades; it's not as bad now as it used to be. But she doesn't remember experiencing the finger stiffness like I'm having now.
I am experimenting with my food intake, on the basis that something I'm eating is causing the inflammation. A couple of things I read suggested that going on a fast may help, so I may try that too.
I was surprised to learn on that page that RA can sometimes spontaneously go into remission. My mom's didn't; it was lifelong for her once she got it (early 40s onset, if I recall correctly) and the kind that eventually twists the joints, but just in her hands, as far as I know or that we knew.
As far as food goes, I blame sugar for everything, so that would be my first cut if I was looking to improve literally anything that felt wrong - but that's just me.
Tendinitis is a possibility (and one that runs in my family, so I have some experience of it). The good news being, if it's infrequent, it can be handled with things like icing and stretching the affected bits.
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And this is different from when my joints need to be cracked, and I'll need to force my hands closed, making them pop, and then everything works fine.
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It's not painful unless I try to force them closed all the way (though I've been having some aches & pains apart from this too - general hand achiness when I've slept too little and/or typed too much, and an occasional sharp burning pain in my right thumb.)
The stiffness seems to get worse during the night, instead of better (which makes me suspect rheumatoid arthritis). But it doesn't go away completely during the day either. This started happening in March, varying in intensity since then. So I'm wondering if it could be anything besides arthritis, as it seems odd for arthritis to come on so suddenly.
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(Anonymous) 2018-05-10 09:44 am (UTC)(link)My first guess before seeing you suspecting RA was "inflammation" but in a long story short sort of way, it's almost the same thing (wherein the immune system simply goes off the wall attacking itself via RA).
My mom took no meds ever for RA (they didn't really have them when she got it; by the time they did she really didn't want them, despite how bad it was; she'd adjusted, I guess) so if it ever gets that far with you (hope not) I have no idea on that.
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My mom has had pain in her thumb joints for decades; it's not as bad now as it used to be. But she doesn't remember experiencing the finger stiffness like I'm having now.
I am experimenting with my food intake, on the basis that something I'm eating is causing the inflammation. A couple of things I read suggested that going on a fast may help, so I may try that too.
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Not really but with that said, it's a very complicated subject, so you may want to start here: https://www.webmd.com/rheumatoid-arthritis/rheumatoid-arthritis-medications#1
I was surprised to learn on that page that RA can sometimes spontaneously go into remission. My mom's didn't; it was lifelong for her once she got it (early 40s onset, if I recall correctly) and the kind that eventually twists the joints, but just in her hands, as far as I know or that we knew.
As far as food goes, I blame sugar for everything, so that would be my first cut if I was looking to improve literally anything that felt wrong - but that's just me.
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("Tofacitinib" - that's one of the worst medicine names I've come across; I wonder how they came up with that name!)
Sugar is actually the first thing I've been cutting out. Next will be wheat/gluten or a fast.
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For what it's worth, as a scientist but non-doctor, the answer to "does this one symptom have multiple etiologies" is always yes. -_-