Raynauds

[Eve]

A quick question if anyone knows or has experience.

Some questions at a consultant's appointment a few weeks ago made me think on and keep an eye on things and have a read up.

My fingers have been going really bright red in cold/wet weather down to c certain part on my hands for some time though getting worse. Am wondering if this is just something related to rheumatoid arthritis as they don't, from what I've noticed, go white or purple or anything which seems to be a pattern for Raynauds.

Thanks for any help.

[Sqad]

You can Google the term Raynauds Disease and get the details, however i would just like to make a few personal comments and comments specifically about your situation.

I don't like the term Raynauds's Disease, I like to call it Raynauds' Phenomenon which indicates to me that that there may be multiple causes, of which Raynaud's Disease is just one.

Is that clear or am i confusing you?

You have an auto immune disorder and have been investigated for other autoimmune diseases of which Raynaud's Phenomenon is associated and you seem to be exhibiting this association.

I am not sure how far this has got us ;-)

[Eve]

That does make sense, it can be a symptom rather than a condition in it's own right especially if you have other autoimmune crap? :)

I've been keeping more of an eye on it since renal asked (from what I could gather doing a screen for lupus amongst other things) which from what I've read is a big one to rule out where the kidneys are concerned. Hopefully not as I've had ANA and complement done a while back and they were negative & higher rather than lower.

RA is more than enough to cope with! I need to get on an even keel with what I have without anything else messing up in the mix. Back on methotrexate now and due to screen for the biologic in a few weeks so I need everything to settle down bloods and such wise and generally with all the infections and get stable on meds. I've already gone part time and just seem to be on a downwards slide.

I've had problems with shiny swelling and redness in cold weather/cold water for quite some time, through more noticeable in winter time. I've been keeping an eye recently in case of colour changes but they just seem to go very red so I figured maybe it's just the RA reacting and not liking the cold.

It cropped up in my thinking again after I was reading a leaflet they had out in rhumo the other week.