I can’t believe the pain I have been in for the past week. It started at the beginning of January but has gotten so bad I can’t take it anymore. I do have an emergency appt with my rheumy on Monday. It started with my back but this past week, the day before the snowstorm (we southerners call 4 inches a blizzard) I went to get some groceries and filled two 5 gallon jugs with kerosene. I put them in the back of the car- they were heavy but not THAT heavy. So the next day, I couldn’t walk, at all. Movement of any sort cause a complete breakdown of tears and my hip and back are still so painfully I look like Frankenstein shuffling from the sofa to restroom. I really can’t do much else. Now my knee is swollen and my outer ankle on that leg. My lower leg an buttock are also very painful. Is this arthritis?!? What the heck?!? I am just praying for relief. Nothing has helped. My imagination is running wild. Any suggestions? Because I am terrified.
Hey TigerGirl, I don't know what medications your currently taking so I don't really have any advice, just know I am thinking about you and hope your pain begins to subside soon. Maybe your doc will put you on a short term steroid to help get you over this rough patch. Take care
Oh boy. I am so glad you have an appointment on Monday! If you cannot make it that long, you might want to consider ER visit. Hopefully you can be put on a short course of steroids or get a depomedrol injection. Sounds like a nasty flare.
It sounds like you may need a medication adjustment. I find when I start flaring frequently it helps to see my Rheumy and get a medication change. For me it is usually a different biologic. I am on my fifth and have just started flaring on it after being on it for 13 months.
Between now and Monday make your bath tub your best friend. I find hot water with Epsom salts helps the pain immensely and allows me to sleep. I also take Aleve 500 mgs and Tylenol 1000 mgs twice a day and tons of water. It helps me walk less like Frankenstein. I also use Salonpas on any spot that hurts. I have done steroid tapers in the past but find the side effects too much and I fear long term side effects too. I will keep you in my thoughts and prayers. I hope you feel better soon.
TigerGirl, how are you doing today? Thoughts and prayers are with you!
Just one more day, Tiger girl, you can do it. And if you can’t, the ER may be willing to supply you with a 24 hour pain killer kit.
Hoping that you can relax, keep warm, nap, have a bath and keep yourself comfortable until you see the rheumie!
I’m sorry you are feeling so crappy! It sounds like you already have a plan, so it’s just a matter of making it until tomorrow. There have been times that I’ve had pain that was more than I could cope with. At those times, I have got to the ER or urgent care depending on how bad it was. The ER gives the steroids and pain meds IV so I feel better right away or the urgent care gives me an rx for oral meds which I go pick up from the pharmacy.
Try Michael’s Epsom salts bath, your favorite pain killers and if you are still not comfortable enough, go to the ER or urgent care.
I hope you get some relief soon… I know just ho hard it can be when you can’t get a break from pain. Take care of you, TigerGirl
Hi there Tigergirl! I must say I can relate! The weather plays a big role for me, with pain. It is warm here, in N.Y., but shooting pains in wrists, elbows and swollen knees are on tap today, and really since Friday. It is the unsettled nature of weather that gets me. I felt more comfortable in our single digit weather than I do now!! But enough of me. I rely heavily on lidocaine .5 percent skin patches. Oh, the things that work for me! Please see if you can get the dr. To write a Rx so you have them for these times. Also, if you can, practice some breathing techniques and light restorative yoga. These tips, which I ignored for a long time, really help. I have seen useful yoga on youtube but I don’t have a name for you right now. I hope you will find that imagination is far outweighed by knowing what is up with this disease. It takes time, but you can find help and help yourself too!
I actually love all of you! I have rx for pain med but I tend to try very hard not to take it. My husband has to practically force me. I think I am so afraid my dr will think I am misusing it or that it will require more and more. I took one last night before my daughter’s birthday dinner at Carabba’s. Ibuprofen or Tylenol won’t touch te pain. I did buy a journal last night to start writing the things I am thankful for and I started some simple yoga to try to get relief. I am just praying I can hang in there until tomorrow. There is no way I can explain this pain to anyone. My leg won’t go forward or backward?!? I do ahe some salon pas! I just remembered! So I gonna get those and some surgical tape because those things never stay on me. I actually feel as though I have a low grade fever today. Do any of y’all ever have fever with sever flare?
Please excuse my typos. Most of the time I am on my iphone and there is a bar covering half of my reply.
Pain is a very odd phenomenon. Years ago,I had a very wise nurse (not Michael in VT or Grumpycat!) who explained to me about pain control. Like you, I was determined to tough it out. She said that if I toughed it out until I couldn’t take it any more, it would take far more meds to quell the pain than if I took a low dose regularly. I took that advice onboard, and I do think she’s right. I think you are better off taking the pain meds in a measured way.
My feeling about Tylenol and Ibuprofen is that they do nothing, absolutely nothing for me, unless I take them consistently. Just popping a couple when I can’t take it any more is a waste of pills.
When you go to the doc, ask how hard you should try to not take the pain medication he prescribed. I think you need to get that issue out in the open.
Thinking of you TigerGirl, sending you a hug x
I hope you're doing better today, TigerGirl! Getting pain under control is huge, not just for quality of life, but for treatment of disease. Stress from pain doesn't help health in general, so managing your pain is an important part of treating your disease. Have you spoken with your doctor about your concerns with pain meds? Perhaps a pain management doctor might be in order?
I'm reluctant to take pain meds as well but have now been told by my medical team that I'd be better off taking a low dose regularly.
Just to make you all laugh ..... I even had my cats vet tell me this last week!!!! He'd heard I had arthritis (think he thought it was RA not PsA) but he wanted to tell me not to give up or let it get me down because he'd developed it 15 years ago and his was now fully controlled by a cocktail of weekly methotrexate, daily low dose of prednisolone and daily low doses of codeine/paracetamol.
Mind you .... and on careful reflection ..... maybe some of us would be better off being treated by a vet? LOL.
Oh y’all! Hahahaha I just have to laugh because my vet is a great source of comfort to me as well! And her dad is a rheumy! But here’s the news. Awoke with a raging migraine and vomiting. Tried all my migraine meds to no avail and had to cancal my appt… Nnnnnooooo!!! Yes. Because my rheumy is a two hr drive. And I was seriously throwing up nonstop. I have severe migraines. So there you have it. My rheumy is on vaca and next appt it the 18. Sob sob. But my sweet dr is sending me to a pain mgt dr. I do love my gen pratitioner. She never blows me off and worked me in ASAP this morning and I am feeling so much better now. Thank heavens. I will def be putting all of your suggestions into practice the next two wees or so. Maybe the weather will cooperate. It is about 70 degrees here today as opposed to the 20 degrees of the past week. Freakish weather. I am trying to soak up some vit d sitting in the sun for a couple of minutes. I am going to have to be very strict with myself about self monitoring my activity and not overdoing it which I always do on my good days. I look very silly with pieces of salon pas stuck to my forehead and I looked extremely silly with a bucket going into the drs office trying reassure all the other waiting people that I wasn’t contagious as scooted as far as possible from me. I am so angry with myself. They always come at the worst possible times- triggered I think from lack of sleep and too much Motrin. Ughhhhhh!!! I try not to think this- but why me?? There are so many worse things I could have. But still- I wish I could learn to cope better and that is what I am trying to learn from y’all. Thanks for listening.
One other tidbit, as I left the dr, the wind was blowin hard and blew the trash can liner from my bowl inside out and sprayed me with bile which was pretty much all I had left to throw up at that point . Shall we call that a silver lining?? 
Mmm, no. I would not call that a silver lining. You poor woman! Tomorrow HAS to be better than today, doesn't it?
The only way is up! Thinking of you and wishing you a better day tomorrow.
Oh, no, Jules! Hugs to you!
Tomorrow will be better.