Hello.
I’m under assessment for Sjögren’s syndrome but also treated separately for muscle issues. Basically all of my muscles are working wrong and doing the wrong thing giving me a lot of other symptoms like horrible head aches.
We have come far but now I am with the rheumatologist to look further into Sjögren’s and arthritis. I don’t feel that I have any arthritis. But I don’t even know what to “feel for”. I’m so used to pain and other issues. So to my question:
My ANA is positive, which from what I read only happens with an auto immune disease?
My right finger and pinky are swollen at the base of the finger, the others aren’t so bad. I have splints as they suspected carpal tunnel but I don’t really think the symptoms match, my hands don’t hurt either.
What I do have however is pain in my arms. And the person helping me with my muscles looked at them today, I had many trigger points (just waiting for the mouse arm diagnosis to come) and also my muscle showed signs of having been inflamed. But not that it was anymore. I have issues with my hand strength but I can tell that it comes from my arm muscles, not my hands or fingers their swelling and weakness feels like a side effect.
Does anyone recognize this with RA? What does joint pain feel like? Maybe I’m experiencing it without knowing and calling it something else (this has happened with other things a few times). Could it be a reason why my arms have had such issues for years? And the swelling? How can I reduce it in my fingers so I can wear my rings?
With the positive ANA I’m wondering if that is a result of inflamed and overly active, strained muscles? Or if there is an autoimmune disease making them that way?