r/Thritis

Hi guys

I am 26/F. Got diagnosed with spondyloarthritis in April and started on adalimumab. It initially crushed my soul but now it literally gave me my life back.

I had no idea the amount of brain fog and pain I was under all these years. MRI says chronic sacroiliitis, it is visible on xray and the Arthropathy had given me two disc bulges, so you can imagine. I still have pain, stiffness and at times swelling over my fingers in the morning which are much much tolerable than the kind of hell I used to be in earlier.

Today i got my rheumat visit and he suggested that i continue 4 more doses of adalimumab and switch to tablets

Now this is making me anxious because I literally started feeling normal just two weeks prior. I’m really scared because idk how it’ll go on and if it’ll hit me like a truck or what. I couldn’t take methotrexate because I was intolerant to it. I’m very very anxious because I’m scared of going back into the worst phase of my life again. The past few months were the darkest, trust me. I was breaking down everyday and was getting suicidal because of the pain. I’m normally a very joyful person, but this changed me a lot.

So today when he mentioned that, I froze. I’m really scared

I want to know if someone has done that or if it’s advisable to even do that or I shouldn’t listen to him
I really want someone to help me out

I have arthritis at 21... currently 22.. and I am just wondering what I can do to help this not progress super rapidly. I am actively working on not hyperextending.. but other than that.. what really helps? I cant take nsaids.. but i do have a topical one that I use on bad days.. but this pain is off and on but is now happening daily. And in my toes too.. which the docs dont know about yet. I still run, walk, everything.. im not going to let this slow me. But I recently hurt my back, a muscle thing, and after seeing how bad chronic pain can get.. I need help keeping the arthritis under control. Are there certain activities that we know for sure cause arthritis? And how does squeezing clay help me? Its just all so much, well not really but I just dont know where to start.

I’m 28F and looking mainly for similar experiences, not a diagnosis.

I became quite sick with what doctors believe was a viral infection around July 24. I had severe fatigue, sore throat, respiratory symptoms/wheezing and body aches, and was also treated for a possible secondary bacterial infection.

The respiratory symptoms have now mostly resolved, but I’ve been left with symptoms that honestly feel worse than the original illness.
I have severe widespread pain affecting both legs as well as my arms, hands and joints. My legs feel extremely heavy and sometimes internally hot/burning, I get burning/nerve-like pain particularly in my feet, and I have frequent twitching/pulsating sensations throughout my legs, arms and occasionally my face.

The fatigue is also intense regardless of how much I sleep, and I feel genuinely weaker than I did before getting sick. Walking feels difficult, carrying heavier bags has become hard, and sometimes even holding a large water bottle feels difficult. The pain can be severe even when I’m completely still or lying down.

I’ve been to the ER, my GP and internal medicine and have had quite a lot of testing. So far nothing has really explained the severity of the symptoms. My CK/CPK is normal, along with several other routine tests. My CRP was elevated during the illness.

Initially my doctors thought this was post-viral, but because the musculoskeletal symptoms are persisting, they’ve now mentioned that rheumatological causes may need to be investigated, including inflammatory arthritis/fibromyalgia. I’m seeing internal medicine again on Friday to discuss the next steps.
I know infections can sometimes trigger inflammatory conditions, so I wanted to ask people here:
Did anyone’s arthritis/rheumatological symptoms begin suddenly during or after a viral infection?

If so, what did the beginning feel like? Did you experience widespread muscle/joint pain, heavy limbs, burning sensations or weakness before developing more typical joint symptoms?
And how long did it take before your doctors were able to determine what was actually going on?

I’m not trying to self-diagnose, I think I’m mostly looking for reassurance that other people have gone through a confusing period like this where they felt awful but the initial tests didn’t provide an explanation.

My son is 5 and is the most active child you’ll meet. He started walking at 10 months and has tried all the sports, ending up on the town hockey team at 4.

One night in February he went to bed complaining of leg pain and woke up the next morning unable to walk. My husband and I pegged it as an injury from playing goalie (kid made an amazing save where he extended his leg to kick the puck), and took him to urgent care for X-rays. They cleared him, agreed it was probably a pulled muscle, and advised rest. Fast forward to Wednesday and he’s back to himself. Amazing!

Saturday morning I start getting him ready for his hockey game and he’s complaining of pain again in his leg, and limping. By 10:00 that morning he can’t walk and I have to carry him. Any movement is causing him severe pain. We take him back to urgent care and they sent us to our local hospital. Our local hospital runs a million tests and finally tells us they think it may be septic arthritis, sends us to our major city children’s hospital. Long story short, one hip tap, and hours of no sleep later we find out he has Transient Synovitis. We get sent home, he seems good. We follow up with Primary and Ortho. Both clear him and say it’s a fluke and it won’t happen again. At this point we aren’t even thinking about the first time a week ago.

Two weeks later, he limps into school on a Thursday. By 10:00 I’m rushing him into the children’s hospital because he can’t walk again. After many hours, MRIs, CT scans, and more blood work than I can name, he’s officially diagnosed with his third bout of transient Synovitis (which, for the record, is exceptionally rare)

Doctors tell me to follow up with rheumatology. This woman, this amazing wonderful rheumatologist hears me out, hears him out, listens to us and has me track symptoms related to JIA. We ended up with a diagnosis in March.

It’s weird though, because I had been saying for months something was wrong. He was lethargic, angry, irritable. He was sensory seeking constantly, looking for input. He couldn’t get out of bed in the morning, his joints cracked constantly, he stopped running as much or as fast, and would take longer to get up when he fell. He became less passionate about hockey games and begged us to stop playing by the end of the second period. Laying it all out like that seems obvious now, but these were things that I was noting over spans of months, and it always felt like puzzle piece was missing.

He also got a concussion in May, and I had emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder in April. So you know, 10/10.

Now we’re a few months in. We had him on a medication that was working really well, he was back to himself. He was happy, wasn’t in pain, playing and cooperating again. He was our boy. Then his meds went on back order and they have to give me another biosimilar. Except it’s not working as well. He’s 3 doses into this one and he’s so angry. He’s exhausted. He’s not sleeping through the night again. His joints are cracking.

I am waiting to try to get insurance to approve the name brand but until then I don’t know what to do. I feel like I’m constantly fighting for him, and I’ll fight until my last breath, but Jesus I just want to be able to breathe. He’s angry, he’s screaming in our faces and throwing fits. This isn’t my kid. He’s in pain and can’t help it, but I also need to discipline him when he acts out. I talk to him, relate to him, hug him, but at the end of the day he can’t scream in our faces. He’s also missing daycare/preschool because of symptoms. He starts kindergarten in a few weeks and things are going to be different.

I’m trying to do everything I can but what do I even do from here? I don’t want to give him meds all the time, but he clearly needs Motrin to help. I don’t want to fight with insurance, but I’m going to fight tooth and nail to get him what he needs. How do I know that I’m making the right choices?

Backstory (sorry for the long read):

I went to Cancun for 10 days at the end of June. I caught a bad stomach infection and from early in the trip to about 3 weeks after returning home I was dealing with that. (I had no idea this was relevant until recent research)

Fast forward 3-4 weeks later I woke up with what I thought was a sprained right ankle but it was weird because I didn’t remember doing anything that would have caused that. The pain was borderline unbearable but I went to work as normal and just kind of shifted weight to my other leg.

Three days later, the pain shifted to my left knee so much so that I go an effusion the size of one of those mini basketballs that made me virtually immobile for 2 days.

(I want to add that I don’t have health insurance because my employer doesn’t offer it, and the plan I was on more than doubled in price at renewal, and I couldn’t afford it, so all of this quickly became horrifying.)

The immobility and pain forced my hand to go to the ER, where I explained I sprained my ankle and then overcompensated on my left leg, causing the effusion, not knowing at the time that the stomach infection could be linked to all the stuff after. I left with crutches and a round of oral steroids, which I just finished last Thursday. $1,000 bill and what I feel like is a wasted visit (although the effusion went away and Im sure they would have referred to rheumatologist anyway).

Things have been weird for a while now. I wake up, and it feels like it takes an hour to even get adjusted to the thought of getting out of bed. My back hurts. My knees hurt. The cuffs of my feet hurt. My right elbow can’t fully extend. The right side of my jaw hurts. Everything is uncomfortable. I can walk, but I dread it because I have to limp and wince in pain every time I do it.

I’m honestly miserable, and I have realized how much I took good health for granted. If anyone has advice on how I can get rid of this, I’d appreciate it a lot. My sister is getting married at the beginning of October, and I’m worried this will have a long-term effect. I’m also a father to a 1-year-old, so I don’t want to be miserable, depressed, and cooped up in pain when I’m not at work.

Hello. Anyone have any experience doing rice bucket exercises for hand osteo arthritis? Was looking for something to help with thumb arthritis, not sure if it would help just came across my mind since I've seen ppl use it to strengthen their hands and wrists outside of the context of arthritis, just for general fitness.

Not looking for medical advice. But in the process of most likely planning the surgery for this winter on my left base of thumb . I have lifted weights at the gym for forty years. I'm a sixty four year old male. I'm slowly able to do less and less at the gym. Due to the pain, despite using various braces, and wrapping. Wondering, if anybody has dealt with getting back to the gym afterwards.

Hey guys, Im a 20 year old college student, recently diagnosed with Spondyloarthropathy.

My appointments are about 3 months apart, and while I try to remember pain/med routine/triggers, Im not able to keep a consistent habit of journaling. Ive tried things, but I am posting (long time lurker) to see if you guys have any good systems (not apps or anything please Im trying to get off my phone 😭).

what do you all actually do? Do you guys just remember or? And if you do just remember, has that ever changed how you interact with the doctor? Any advice would be appreciated!!

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a good apple peeler. A lot of the ones I'm finding also slice, but I just need something that will peel. I love making apple pie but I have rheumatoid arthritis and it's just too hard to use a regular veggie peeler. Thank you ❤️

Early 2024 I developed 'tendinitis' in two separate sites in each shoulder and one on each distal biceps tendon. There was no injury, no changes to my training or diet, and no explanation that I could give to the cause. This was diagnosed by a physio, but as somebody with a human physiology based biology degree, I was already suspicious that something systemic was at play. Symptoms persisted for around 5 months, not noticeably improving with physiotherapy and only NSAIDs provided mild relief. Gradually over time symptoms reduced (and physio then became more successful), but never went away.

During the first half of 2025 I developed hip issues. Each hip would ache when lying in the fetal position, initially it would be the top hip that ached, nowadays both hips are in agony in the top or bottom position. The pain became very severe over time and has drastically reduced my quality of life. It affects me all day long, but is worse in the morning and at night when everything seizes up. The issue persists to this day, it did die down for about 3 weeks towards then end of 2025, then came back without any incident or aggravation, and today is worse than ever.

Between January and May 2026, my 2024 issues (which were still mildly present, but died down significantly) came back to rear their ugly heads, and this time they brought friends. Both distal biceps tendons, two places in both shoulders, both distal triceps, both distal quadriceps and some knuckle, finger, toe and metatarsal pain, just for seasoning. I also developed inner eyelid inflammation to the point where I can no longer wear contacts, and severe stomach cramping / nausea / vomiting symptoms and, oddly, a new aversion to foods that I used to love.

Now, there is not a human being on this planet, of any profession, that could convince me there is nothing systemic going on. The multi-site, symmetrical, unprovoked, episodic and 'flaring' nature absolutely scream a systemic driving force behind these issues.

Recent MRIs have found 'signs of damage' to both my SI joints (may be misremembering the word damage here, but they found something) and some localised low-level oedema. They took bloods to be sent to test for HLA-B27 but the lab sent back generic bloods and didn't test for that marker (the only thing we actually wanted to test for, lol), so I need to go back.

Anyway, apologies for the long post, I do struggle to be concise and this is something that has dominated my life for nearly 3 years and I just desperately want help.

So, can anybody relate to these symptoms?

I am looking for any suggestions to help with bone on bone, severe pain, in my step instep, and the side of my feet…

Two years ago, I went to orthopedics surgeon that said that I needed surgery, to clean out the bone on bone areas and to add bone between them, when he told me that I would have to be non-weight-bearing on my foot for six months I told that I could not do it…
The pain was getting progressively worse, and I started to go to a rheumatologist about a year and a half ago, so far I have been on IVs of Cymzia, Simponi Aria, and now I will be getting my fourth monthly IV of Actemra, i’ve gotten no relief from any of these so I don’t know what my next step would be other than surgery which at 77yo I don’t think I can do…I have also been taking once a week, methotrexate for all this time …

I was told by an acquaintance two names of other drugs, Xeljanz, Skyrizi, has anyone gotten any relief from these, and are these drugs any more dangerous than the IVs I’ve been taking previously… I do take a lot of medication’s for other problems that I have…I also have rheumatoid arthritis in my wrists…

Hey, guys. Been struggling with osteoarthritis for 6.5 years. Been getting caudal steroid injections for years, always under twilight sleep. Got a new doctor (old doctor left the practice) and he did an injection today a little higher up, but without anesthesia or any kind of meds. Besides some lidocaine. Is this normal? Is this what I have to expect from here on out?? I was so panicked and scared, and it was quite painful. Can I request sedatives? They already make me have a driver for this, even though I was in and out of the office in less than half an hour. They treated the whole procedure very nonchalantly as I lay there sniffling and hyperventilating a bit. I know I'm a baby, and I can handle the pain level of the shot, but the whole process makes me so anxious. What have your experiences been? Twilight sleep? In office with no meds?

I'm in Canada and it will be cold soon. Whenever I try to use blankets the weight of the blanket on my toes and knees cause me pain. I read suggestions about using pillows to keep the blankets off your body. But I have a twin bed and already sleep with my joints propped upon pillows and I don't have room for more pillows. I also have neuropathy so I like cotton and non pilling fibers

I'm a 21 year old guy with Rheumatoid Arthritis (I was diagnosed with Juvenile Arthritis at 12 and later RA at 20). I been meaning to go to the gym for quite some time now, but I been putting it off because I'm still a bit scared about hurting myself or pushing too hard. Got any tips on what kind of workouts I should do or focus on? And if there are things I should avoid doing?

Hello,

Its probably too early to ask this for me. Ive was diagnosed in the beginning of July of this year. First medication I tried didnt work. Made me nauseous and my blood sugar dropped dangerously low.

Im currently on Methotrexate. It has been only three weeks since I have started this. Sadly, the pain in my hands by the end of the night keeps me up. I feel like crying it hurts so much.

I also have sleep apnea as well so I use a CPAP machine.

My question is, does anyone else have this problem? You're taking your medication but at night you can't sleep be6of the pain?

Tengo artritis reumatoide , por indicaciones médicas es necesario hacer actividad física y por mi edad (38) creo que lo más importante es generar músculo, por lo que trato de hacer ejercicios con peso, mancuernas y tobilleras en casa, no lo considero excesivo, pero pues posiblemente hice alguna mala posición y me lastime un hombro. Sin embargo el dolor comenzó progresivamente, un par de días después fue súper intenso y comencé también con dolor leve en algunas otras articulaciones, específicamente un par de dedos. ¿Será que por mi factor reumatoide un pequeño lesión se puede hacer más grave y además generar un brote?

My aunt is severely overweight and was recently diagnosed with Rheumatic Arthritis. What diet changes did many of you have to make? And what foods should she be avoiding?

So I was just told that the pain in my big toe that’s been worsening over last couple of years, is because there is no cartilage left in my large toe joint. I’m told it’s severe arthritis. Had a cortisone shot that hurt more than child birth for a weekend and about a week after it finally started feeling better and about a month after that, it was better than before. That was 4 months ago and now again the pain is worse. I used to be so active, walking 10k+ steps with my German shepherd, running along and playing with my 5 year old child, and now just walking is painful and makes me sad. I’ve gained wait and lost motivation. I’m waiting on specialist appointments, but have been told likely only other option is to fuse the joint, which means no bending of that joint. Looking for any advice on how people manage something like this, how do you work up a sweat and still enjoy life etc. I feel it’s impacted every aspect of my living and I need to do a major overhaul of how I live life. Not to mention idk how to for example give my dog the exercise it needs. I miss hiking, running etc :(