Knowing your rheumatoid arthritis symptoms
Knowing your rheumatoid arthritis symptoms is the first step to managing them.
Pain
When the lining of the joints is attacked by the body's immune system and becomes inflamed, it can lead to swelling, stiffness, and as people with RA know all too well, pain. Because the disease is progressive, the cycle of inflammation can get worse over time. Which means the pain can become more severe too.
Some rheumatoid arthritis signs and symptoms
- Pain and stiffness after not moving around for a while
(like after you've been sitting or sleeping)
- Fatigue (tiredness)
- Muscle weakness
- Periods when the disease is "active" (called flares) and "inactive" (called remissions)
- Rheumatoid nodules - which are lumps of tissue under the skin that can appear on the elbows or hands
Symptoms may vary from patient to patient. The intensity of these symptoms can be mild, moderate or severe.
Keeping track of your rheumatoid arthritis symptoms
You may want to keep a daily journal to better track your rheumatoid arthritis symptoms so that you can gather as much information about the state of your disease. The more you know about how you are feeling, the more your healthcare professional can help you throughout the course of your treatment. See the box below for some simple questions to ask yourself.
If you like, you can print out these questions, write down your answers in the space we'll provide, and take your new journal to your next appointment with your healthcare professional.
Print the Signs and Symptoms of RA List
