@Jan Dollar posted:What does the doctor mean by "normal" arthritis? There is no such thing. Does she mean osteoarthritis, which is the common degenerative type?
Rheumatoid arthritis has nothing to do with IBD. However, there is inflammatory arthritis associated with IBD. There are two types. There is the peripheral arthritis that tends to wax and wane, following the intestinal disease course. Then there is the axial (spinal) arthritis that has an independent course from IBD. One hallmark symptom is sacroiliitis for more than 3 months. This is ankylosing spondylitis and does not have RA factor positive tests, but there may be a positive antibody HLA-B27. Still, about 30% or more with IBD are not positive for this antibody. Treatment is similar to rheumatoid arthritis.
For me, when Humira lost its effectiveness, I moved on to Simponi, then to Cimzia. Now I'm on Remicade along with Imuran. Sure, stretching, and exercise do much to relieve pain and maintain flexibility, but there is more to do.
Jan
hey Jan, maybe you can try to help. So in the past i have had some joint pain in a few of my fingers and saw my ortho doc who is a hand specialist and he did injections that helped. I had Covid end of May and then i had my firsy shingles vaccine about 6 weeks ago. A few weeks after that shingles vaccine i started getting very sore in my finger joints, wrists, and sometimes in my ankles. I am scheduled to see a rheumatologist in about a month. I am already assuming it to be Rheumatoid arthritis. But I saw your comment on there being inflammatory arthritis associated with IBD. Does this type show up as positive with all the labs I am sure they will run for RA. ? its very mild and I have read about all the many RA drugs and biologics and the side effects dont seem fun. But if IBD related inflammatory arthritis and not RA , can it still cause deformaties? It sucks we cant take NSAIDS for this but right now i just do cannabis.