knuckles swollen for no reason

First thing I have to say is that I'm 23 years old, have off and on chronic pain in my back and neck and legs normally, and I've had 4 children back to back but never complications with that. I'm under weight for being 5 ft 6. And my problem currently is last night I came k side from the cold and I noticed my knuckles on my right had were dry, sore and extremely swollen it hurt to bend my fingers. I usually have wrist pain in both hands along with hand pain I feel threw my bones it seems like sometimes. I'm worried now about my hand because I have small children I care for full time. My skin also cracked on my knuckles when they were swollen, they are still quite swollen today. And when I warmed my hands up they started to have a pulse of there own and burned, hurt and got worse, I did warm them slowly. What could it be? Should I go to my doctor?

[S. Kaul, MD]

Hi there!

Well, without a clinical evaluation it would be difficult to determine the cause of your symptoms. Possibilities that may need to be considered include inflammation, degeneration, arthritis, neuro-muscular causes, injuries etc. I would suggest getting this evaluated by a primary care physician or a rheumatologist for an accurate diagnosis and appropriate management. Meanwhile you could try using some OTC NSAIDS and see if these seem to help.
Hope this is helpful.

Take care!