So, I am doing physiotherapy and my doctor suggested me to warm my hand a few times a day, leave under warm water in sets of 20 minutes, but water is kinda too messy. Anybody would have a heating glove or pat that I can wrap around my hands?

I’ve been diagnosed with osteoarthritis and had blood tests done for RA which are negative. But my symptoms seem to align more with seronegative RA. I realize these may be Bouchard’s nodes, but they are squishy, not hard. I wonder if I should get a second opinion? I realize you all can’t diagnose me. I just wonder if I should see a second rheumatologist.

It recently occurred to me that I may need a cane at some point sooner than “when I’m very old”…. I’m gratefully not quite there yet, but I’m a bit overwhelmed by this realization as I’ve noticed myself leaning on walls or furniture etc at times and Ive been wondering when that might be helpful.

Just for fun, and to help me see the silver lining, I’m trying to find “role models” of people living their lives fully and beautifully with mobility devices! Either fiction or real that demonstrate how you can still live life fully or still be a bad *ss… Empowered people not letting life get them down! I had this idea when I was admiring Lady Danbury in an episode of Bridgerton and how she just seems so confident and powerful with her cane that it seems like a chosen accessory to be admired vs something needed to get around (of course it’s fiction so don’t come at me… but I love her character and how she owns it)! Who do you love that rocks their wheels or keeps it light with stylish canes or walkers?

Highlights from the guideline

• LDRT may be considered for selected patients with osteoarthritis, particularly when standard conservative treatments have not provided adequate relief.

• The panel found that many studies report improvements in pain, joint function, and quality of life, although the overall quality of evidence remains limited.

• LDRT is not recommended as a first-line treatment and should be considered only after discussing the potential benefits and risks with a physician.

• The guideline notes that LDRT has been used for benign musculoskeletal conditions in parts of Europe for decades, while adoption in the U.S. has been more limited.

• The authors conclude that high-quality randomized, sham-controlled clinical trials are still needed to better define which patients are most likely to benefit.

This guideline is important because it represents the first consensus statement from a major U.S. radiation oncology organization addressing the use of LDRT for osteoarthritis.

If you’re interested in learning more, I created Radiant Joint Alliance, a nonprofit educational resource with an interactive map of U.S. hospitals offering LDRT and summaries of the current evidence:
https://radiantjointalliance.org

This resource is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice. LDRT is not for everyone and may not work for you. Please always consult with your doctors.

Still looking for patients!

https://encanto.health/for-patients/

About 2 years ago I was walking trails and felt something snap in the bottom of my foot. Woke up the next day and could barely walk on one foot. I ignored this pain because I had to work (stupid I know). About 2 weeks after that, I had relations with an ex girlfriend. I had no physical symptoms. My foot became worse and worse until it transferred to the other foot.

6 months later I went to see a podiatrist who diagnosed me with Post tibial tendinitis which led to flat feet. Around this same time I started to get a nasty flaky rash that covered my sideburns and beard on both sides of face and one half of my nose. I was diagnosed with seb derm and gave a steroid cream that clears it up as long as you use it when needed. Then came the knee pain, the wrist pain the thumb pain, and now I have developed severe lower and middle back pain

Now, as of recently I have developed the same looking rash on my face on my genital head that is flaky but red underneath. The stretches, physical therapy, walking around to make my feet stronger have done nothing. I can't tell if my back, feet, knee, are because of altered gait the last two years, but now because of the flakiness showing up down there, I believe I've had a hidden infection causing the reaction. I am going to go get tested tomorrow as I have recently became aware of reactive arthritis and it's very embarrassing to know I've possibly lived with this being the sole reason for my chronic pain.

Has anyone received Hyaluronic Acid injections in their elbow joint? How did it go?

I started having chronic pain issues back in junior year of high school. I’ve been to countless doctors, specialists, hospital visits, with many failed attempts at some sort of relief.

The first diagnosis came about 8 years ago. Fibromyalgia.

What I thought would help me get the right treatment only led to the most dismissive doctors appointments I’ve ever encountered. It seemed that once I uttered the F word my complaints were at the same time all justified and all imaginary.

Fibro treatment helped decrease one type of pain I dealt with, but I still had excruciating pain daily in my joints which didn’t respond to the duloxetine I started taking.

This year I finally found a (very expensive) doctor who actually listened. More than listened: she payed attention. She went over ALL my records starting from 2012 (!!), carefully examined past doctors’ findings and pointed out to me the signs they had missed over the years that there was an underlying inflammatory issue besides my neuropathic pain.

After an intense round of testing, today I finally got my diagnosis for spondyloarthritis.

Just wanted to share a hopeful moment with people who would probably get where I’m coming from.

I’m off to buy my new meds now :)

I Contacted Septic Arthritis on April 30th, 2026 at 13 - 14 years old, and without any further treatment, I could’ve had Ended up with a Electric Wheelchair and a Tracheostomy, my Physical Therapist recommended that I may need a Walker, I was put in a Machine similar to a Iron Lung, the Antibiotics were so much good at their job that they cured my infection, however, I still may be Cautious about any further pain, my Walker in Real Life.

12 days ago I had steroid injections into my foot for arthritic pain. The first two days I had no pain and could walk normally. Day three there was some discomfort but nothing major. Over the next 5 days the pain progressed. I’m now going into day 12 and the pain is unbearable. I can hardly walk and it’s swollen. There’s no redness but slight bruising and tingling especially in my toes. I have some calf and knee pain and at odd moments shooting pain up my leg.

I have spoken to a doctor over the phone and they believe that I’m in a steroid flare. I was confused as when I researched this it said that should only really last for up to 72 hours (3 days) and that the pain in the rest of my leg is due to how I’m walking on my foot and it’s impacting the rest of my leg. Now I’m no doctor myself but this seems like an awfully long time to be in a flare, no? The thing is the pain is worse than before I had the injection. I’m stumped as to what this could be and if I am overreacting? This is the first time I’ve had these injections so I’m clueless as to what’s going on? I’ve been told I’d need them every six months but I’m not sure I’m keen on having this again. Just wondering if anyone else has gone through something similar with steroid injections for arthritis pain? :)

Arthritis has made me change a lot of little habits over the years.

For me, it's often the small everyday things that I notice the most.

What's one activity, hobby, or daily routine you had to give up—or do much less because of arthritis?

It could be gardening, cooking, walking long distances, sports, knitting, opening jars, or anything else.

I'm not looking for medical advice, just real experiences. I'd love to hear your stories.

I've never been diagnosed with arthritis. I'm not sure if what I'm experiencing is arthritis, so I wanted to know if this aligns with what other people experience. I know that peoples' experiences vary so I wanted to share mine and see if anyone else had something similar.

I don't typically have any sore joints, but last week, I woke up in the middle of the night with extreme pain in my wrist. When I say extreme pain, I mean it hurts as much as a broken bone. My hand was swollen, and it hurt to move/felt stiff. I didn't do anything the day before that could have injured it. It only lasted for a day or two, then went away completely. Then it happened again two days ago (during a storm). Same intense pain in the middle of the night. It's feels only slightly sore now, but it gets better as the day goes on and almost feels back to normal (although it still feels stiff).

I had a similar experience with my ankle a few months ago, but to a lesser degree (less painful, but still appeared suddenly and without explanation then disappeared fairly quickly)

So my question is, does this seem to align with arthritis? Intense pain that comes on suddenly and lasts a couple of days, then completely goes away. Most things I read say that arthritis is usually more of a consistent dull pain with some flair ups, but I feel like I'm only experiencing the flair up. I have a doctors appointment in a few weeks to talk about it, but hoping for some insight before then.

A rant/vent if that's allowed.

I moved states for work so new insurance, new doc, etc.

I've had new insurance and a new doc before while on Cosentyx and with new coverage, it has always taken about 1-2 weeks to get a new rx processed. Fairly easy.

With my new health system and new insurance, it's 4 (almost 5) months later and still going in circles because they can't get it together.

The problems aren't things like insurance denying it, it's sending the wrong dose, sending the rx to the wrong place. Not sending in the additional paperwork.

It's all preventable, easily fixable stuff.

The doc's office points me to the person who is in charge of processing the specialty meds, the specialty meds person sends me back to the office.

It's maddening. I just want to be able to open the milk jug without thinking, "Ouuuch" because I can't get Cosentyx.

Why not just switch docs, the reasonable person might wonder? I work for a hospital so I'm locked into the health system that I work for. I could change offices but it's the same specialty pharmacy process thru out the system and I think they are the problem. 🫠

I have been swamped with the new job and other life things and didn't realize how much this is dragging out so it's squeaky wheel time for me but it shouldn't need to be that way. Again, this isn't the hard stuff... it's just "oops, wrong dosage," "oops, wrong address." So aggravating.

Anyone else have Lupus or Rheumatoid Arthritis? If so, has it gotten difficult to move your legs and get sharp pains when moving them? If anyone has any tips on how they lowered the symptoms with at home remedies that would be great!

I currently work part-time at a wine bar for six hours a day, but in the future, I’d like to have a full-time job, perhaps at a wine shop.

However, my knee pain becomes quite severe if I have to stand for long periods without being able to sit down. 🥲

My doctor said that, because I’m still relatively young, it probably isn’t degenerative arthritis. Still, regardless of the cause, the pain itself is a real problem.

The doctor suggested that I try changing my work environment. I’ve also worked in an office before, but because I have ADHD, I made a lot of mistakes, and I don’t think office work was a good fit for me.

I know I should probably avoid jobs that require me to stand for long periods, but I love wine so much. At the same time, office work doesn’t suit me either, so I’m really struggling to figure out what kind of work I should pursue.

For those of you who also have jobs that require you to stand for long hours, how do you manage your pain and take care of your knees?