For the last couple of weeks, my ankles (left one in particular) have been swelling more than normal (they're always a little swollen), but not with any noticeable pain attached to it. It's better when I get up in the morning but gets worse through the day, reaching a peak before bed. It's not BAD bad, but it's worse than I'm used to. I normally have compression things that I wear, but they don't seem to be doing their job like they have been! Does this sound like a PsA thing or something random and unrelated that I have to worry about?!
Hi there darinfan.
Before I started treatment (Methotrexate initially), all my swollen joints were painful so I associated swelling with pain. However, once the drug kicked in the pain eased little by little, but the swelling remained until I started Humira. I do still get swollen joints, usually relatively pain-free, but they tend to come & go.
My rheumy doesn't like swollen joints on the grounds that they are signs of active PsA. Though of course they could be due to other things. In the evenings I put my feet up on the arm of the sofa, that's routine now. As well as raising the ankles whenever possible you could try ice or heat on them. It's good your ankles don't hurt, that just makes such a huge difference. But I'd imagine it is PsA-related.
Swelling could be due to high blood pressure and poor kidney function, I think. My husband has had a lot of problems with swollen feet/ankles. I don’t think he has pain with it. He did have pain with it when it was arthritis-related, though. When my PsA was active I had subtle swelling that I noticed only after my rheumy pointed out to me. Do you have high blood pressure?
Thanks. And apologies for the delay in getting back. I ended up at the docs yesterday just to get it checked out for sure. Liver and kidneys had been checked out in bloods from a few weeks back, so knew they would be OK. Doc seemed to think that it stems back to when I moved house a few weeks back and spent a great deal of time on my feet, causing them to swell, but that the fluid hasn't been re-absorbed for some reason - and I'm having a flare-up in other joints anyway. Anyway, nothing to worry about apparently. Heart was listened to just to make sure and blood pressure was fine. Glad to have it checked though as I quickly go into anxiety mode and it makes everything worse. It's not been helped that the supports I used to use for my ankles have been discontinued and I have yet to find a replacement that works as well. So, seems to be a bit of everything tied in together. Thankfully, the swelling went down yesterday - not so good today, but hot humid weather which we have today isn't the best thing for it anyway.
As always, thank you for all the replies.
Ah, Darinfan. Glad that there's no panic, but what you are experiencing seems to be the way this damned disease operates. Something swells, goes down, hurts, then is fine, something else happens. Usually, whatever it is disappears as soon as you head for the doctor!
How is the new place suiting? I hope the effort of the move is paying off in terms of convenience and comfort.
I think Seenie just about sums it up!
I'm moving house too .... we anticipated the whole business being rather stressful, expensive and frustrating at times but as it happens it all of those things writ large, an epic drama! After a couple of years of getting the 'PsA well-controlled' verdict from my rheumy, I've now been downgraded to 'reasonably well-controlled'. And we haven't even actually moved yet!
However, while I don't think it's accurate to say that anything about PsA is reassuring per se, the way it fluctuates is something you can get used to. Well, as long as the things that typically happen to you are neither too painful or too debilitating anyway. For example, my wrists and ankles have been swelling on & off for years but I don't think they're damaged and they're still quite strong & relatively pain-free, usually.
At the moment I do have quite a lot of pain and walking is more difficult than usual. So once the move is over, once the old stress levels have returned to normal and I start looking after myself like I should again, I'll be interested to see whether I get back to that happy 'well-controlled' state. It's an ongoing learning curve for sure but when you start to discern some patterns that can be quite reassuring.
Sorry, I haven't been around here lately.
Moving was stressful, but got through it ok, and then the swollen feet thing that I wrote about in this thread happened, and thankfully disappeared again. Whether the disappearance had anything to do with the new supports for my feet I found online, I don't know - but I'm putting it down to that as the symptoms disappeared almost over night.
Then, about four weeks ago I had a rather major relapse of my bipolar disorder. I went to bed one night perfectly fine, and woke up the next morning a complete wreck. I normally see these attacks coming, but there was no forewarning this time around. It just happened. It was a huge blow, as my confidence regarding the bipolar had been better than it had been for several years. I'm back on my feet again now, so to speak, and back to "normal" - but it's not normal, of course, as you have that constant doubt as to when and if it will happen again. The confidence has gone, and it will take many months to get it back again.
On the plus side, I put aside my pride and hired a mobility scooter for a day last week and whizzed around the city for a few hours, going to shops I hadn't been able to reach for a while. I wouldn't want to do it every time, as I think trying to walk when you can is important, but at least I got past that "pride" barrier. It was a hot day, and I was determined to enjoy it. The hot weather makes me tired, but the arthritis seems to like it. Nothing is remotely gone pain-wise, but am at least making the most of the "new normal" as they say!
All mine started with ridiculous swelling but zilch pain. The pain came later like a tornado but not until several weeks had passed. Tge swelling disappeared then too. Now I’ve both. Keep working with any normal new or otherwise that makes today just better.
sorry to resurrect this old thread, but it made sense rather than start another. I’m on the Benapali now and the pain is 70-80% better, but the swelling isn’t all that much different. I still get it in my ankles, although it doesn’t go down into my foot now like it used to - but it does seem go a little way up my leg. Only some days. Not others. Just to make life interesting for us - about a hand’s width above my ankle. It doesn’t pit - but my assumption is that there isn’t enough of it to pit - the swelling isn’t deep enough. But I know it’s there. My legs are like tree trunks to start with, without the swelling on top! I have a sense that the swelling is linked to the petechiae I’ve got, but all blood results are fine (except for large red blood cells, which means I need a boost in folate. Had that before).
Anyone else get similar issues?
Nothing wrong with bringing a thread back from the dead. Sometimes it draws posters in who we haven’t heard from for a while.
But in this case, the only people on the thread are “the usual suspects”. 
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I had inflammation in my foot when I got diagnosed at 18… the inflammation went away but the swelling never did… I’m 31 now lol not sure if thats what you meant… and I didn’t read the old topic…