Saturday 23 February 2013

Weird lumps?

I have an RA question for you all. I've been trying to google this but I can't seem to find the right words to search or maybe no one's written about this yet. Does anyone get weird lumps on their fingers and toes which are not nodules? I've looked up nodules and they're definitely not those, as nodules seem to get described as painless hard bumps that appear over bones like elbows. The things I get are red bumps that sort of look like mosquito bites and are quite soft. They're definitely inflammation as they get hot sometimes and they are tender to the touch but they're not in the joints themselves and they don't affect the bend of the joints. I've had them at the end of my toes near the nail (so the end of the toe looks like it's swollen and tender but without affecting the bend of the toe) and also on my fingers at the ends or sometimes between the joints just at the side of the fingers. Totally weird. Does anyone know what I mean?! If I push them in it's just flesh, it's not a big lump of fluid or anything. Just tender red spots as if a random bit of the flesh is swollen. I don't know how to describe it. They're not really painful but just a bit tender and hot sometimes. The best I can describe it as is an inflamed insect bite on very localised areas of my fingers. Hmmm!

3 comments:

  1. I used to get those literally alllll the time on my knees! It would get so bad as a child I would pick them like pimples and that was just a horrible idea. With my subtype of JRA I get a rash and along with that also end up getting agitated skin that is very bumpy usually on my face that we've referred to as alligator skin - it's dry, bumpy, and definitely also is a source of inflammation. Stupid disease!

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  2. Gosh, at first I thought I was going to be able to help as I have been a lucky recipient of lots of nodules. But, it sounds like what you have is very different. Are they temporary?

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  3. Hmm KirBir, I wouldn't say it's a rash, yours sounds awful though! I only ever get 1 or 2 at a time and yes Cathy they are temporary, usually a few weeks. Sometimes they precede an actual joint flare and sometimes they disappear and nothing else happens. I suspect they pop up when the RA activity ramps up in some way but maybe not enough to cause a proper flare. I really don't know! The best visual description is of a mosquito bite. Sometimes you can't even tell they're there by looking but I can feel that a certain part of my finger is swollen (say, right at the tip) and when I press on it you can see the redness and feel the tenderness which is very localised. It's weird that they come up in places outside the joints. I find it hard to describe it so I don't know how to even ask my rheumatologist about it!

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