Sore hands every morning

[Melissa072]

Hi  All,

Was wondering if anyone could help me at all.
Last few weeks I am getting woken up to sore, numb hands, and a pain in one elbow.

This also happened a few years ago, and they sometime  hurt and go numb when I hold onto the steering wheel or the phone.

A couple of years ago, my first neuro told me I have carpel tunnel in my left hand due to this, but not the right.


Also another question regarding ms:    I have many ms symptons but the only one which worsens in the heat is the tingling I get in both feet and hands.  If you have ms are all your ms symptons supposed to worsen in the heat, or can it just be some??????????????


Thanks everyone,

Melissa

[vicmid1]

Hi Melissa
To answer your question about conditions that could be affected by heat/cold. i'm sorry but I don't know anything about your history if you've posted it on here and I'm no doctor! The soreness in your hand and elbows could be attributed to many things.
My nan has lived with severe rheumatoid arthritis for many years and it looks like I have a milder course of RA along with probable MS. With RA, you would wake with stiff sore joints usually hands, fingers..then sometimes elbows, knees, ankles. The soreness usually comes with inflammation and this lasts for about 45-60 minutes or more after waking and mobility. Once you are up and walking around, the swelling  usually subsides and your mobility is improved. Symptoms can also worsen upon resting for a while or staying in one position for a while. Heat can actually improve the symptoms of RA and damp, wet weather can exacerbate the symptoms. I think out of all the AI diseases, RA is one of the easier ones to diagnosis as the physical changes can be quite dramatic and easier to pinpoint. The swelling in the joints is key here and this is one of the physical things that a doc would be looking for and damage caused by this can be picked up on ultrasound and xray.

Lupus is the other condition which springs to mind and one can get stiff, sore hands, fingers...in fact sore anything (!) but not always with inflammation. However, unlike RA it is a multi system disease and affects many other parts of your body...one of the more common being your skin. People with lupus are often photosensitive and react negatively to sunlight..symptoms can become worse and fatigue can be quite unbearable in heat. The key symptom with lupus seems to be a skin rash seen on the face or other areas of the body and the heat can affect this. Not everyone has the rash but it is a common feature.

I'm sure the guys on here who are more experienced in the symptoms of MS will clarify the heat issue for you..although I am learning very quickly that everybody seems to experience many different symptoms with MS which are triggered/affected by different external and internal factors.

I hope I haven't patronised you here and told you stuff that you knew already...but I hope I have helped a little.

Reading the journals etc...may help clarify some stuff for you.

Best of luck Melissa
Vic xxx

[PastorDan]

No expert here, but that could very well be carpal tunnel syndrome, from what I remember of my late wife's experience with it.  She'd sometimes drop her hair dryer or comb, because her hand went completely asleep whenever she'd raise it a certain way.  She had both hands surgically repaired in the summer of 2001, and they worked very well afterward.

I've not fully figured out what's happening with me in heat (or cold), but I am undx, too, so my experience might not be typical MS.  It's my understanding, though, that heat sensitivity affects only a portion of MS patients, and it just seems logical to me that perhaps that would apply to the spectrum of symptomology, too.

I've read somewhere that there is nearly as much cold sensitivity/exacerbation as from heat.  Has anyone else seen that stated anywhere?  My memory, you know.