Here's some background... I recently recovered from a 3 year bout with severe anorexia and bulimia. Everything is fine and dandy, but I'm suffering some health issues in other areas.
Rheumatoid arthritis runs in both sides of my family, both grandmothers, my mother and my aunt have pretty chronic joint pain. My mom took a look at my hands last week and said, "yep, welcome to the world of rheumatoid."
I'm on the computer 10-12 hours a day usually, and haven't had any problems I would associate with carpal tunnel - all of the pain is in the joints of my fingers (worse in my right hand, I also draw/write a good portion of the day) and in my toes. The only thing that stops them from hurting temporarily is popping them, which is probably making it worse, but it's kind of a itch/scratch thing. At night, the only way I can sleep is to use toe separators to keep my toes from touching and stretch them out, but I end up popping my fingers in my sleep and laying with weight on them to ease the pain. Tylenol/Ibuprofen aren't even touching the pain.
What I'm wondering is if a) this is really rheumatoid arthritis, or b) if this is another joint problem brought on by malnutrition, or c) if keyboard/mouse usage is the problem. I have a great ergonomic keyboard and everything at my desk is very carefully set up to be as kind to my joints as possible, but the pain continues.
Any help is greatly appreciated... thank you!