I am a 38 yo female. About 2 months ago I woke up w/ my wedding ring feeling very tight and noticed my finger was swollen and painful. I ended up taking off ring but pain never subsided. Then a couple weeks later the pinky finger next to that one started hurting. Also in same spot, the joint that is mid-finger. It looked red and enlarged. A few weeks later the pinky on other hand then hurt,followed by both thumbs. I also noticed my bottoms of feet hurt. Every morning when I wake all the fingers are swelled up and very hard to bend. I cant tell if they are hard to bend b/c of water retention or b/c joints are swelled. I feel very stiff .As day goes on I feel better. I am active and in good shape,thin. I run a few times a week and feel better after exercising. I dont eat any extra salt,dont even own a shaker, so I doubted salt was causing retention of water. I saw my doc,who said fingers looked like osteoarthritis.But she ran Rh panel,w/ lyme and lupus, all were negative.
So here I am not sure what to do now. I am concerned it was so sudden onset,like literally one day I woke up and there it was, is that normal for osteo?
Also my other concern is I had my third child 6m ago. At 5 w post partum I did not feel well. It began w/ what I can only describe as a horrible throat/neck pain like someone was pressing/choking me and tingling. My voice was also hoarse and cracky. It went on w/ no relief. I ran around to docs,and heard everything from 'it's just stress,new baby,etc' to 'hormones' to 'allergies'. Nobody really knew. I was put on antibiotics 2 seperate times w/ no help. Then after a month or so I started feeling really bad, got loose stools,muscle weakness. Then the throat tingling also went to this pain /tingling when I breathed in ,like under my chest bone? Almost a feeling like you drank pool water when swimming by accident, I dont know how to describe. That burning feeling lasted a week. Finally an ENT said it looked like reflux,put me on nexium and special diet. The acute throat pain did subside eventually,like after 2 mo of nexium, but then I woke w/ this hand problems. I even asked him did the nexium cause this? He said he didnt think that was possible,just coincidence. I am still trying to put all this together, I guess I have never been fully convinced I even had reflux, I dont fit profile, not overweight, dont eat fatty foods, dont drink alcohol. I did like spicy stuff and was post partum I guess, but I thought all along I felt like I was being attacked by something viral,that is only way to describe. In any case I am throwing this history out there in case anyone thinks it is all actually tied together ,the GERD symptoms and the arthritis or if anyone knows any tests I can get,or what to do? Thanks all.