Dr puts everything down to MS...!!!

I’m so fed up with everything being blamed on my MS. Over the last year I have developed bilateral stiff & painful little finger PIP joints, the doctor said its the MS. I then noticed a painful, but movable soft lump on both joints, dr said they were ganglion cysts…in both fingers? The pain & stiffness is now in my index fingers, this wakes me during the night which requires intense massage to help bend my fingers and relieve the pain, sometimes I have heavy pins & needles in my little fingers. I have had all my inflammatory markers, RA etc checked but they are all normal. I don’t know if the lumps on my PIP joints are as a result of the stiff joints and if the stiff fingers are the MS or may be there is another underlying cause. Dr doesn’t seem interested because as far as they are concerned it is MS! Any thoughts / advice?

This sounds familiar to me. I have had painful finger joints on and off for years. The fingers can feel very stiff and the joints very tender when touched. I have had every test under the sun, blood tests, unltrasound of all the joints, but every thing came back negative. I’ve never been able to pin it down and have come to assume it is down to MS. The only other thing I wonder is if it due to something I eat or drink. For instance, I have heard that Coke can cause a problem.

Hope you get an answer soon.

Em

have you been checked for carpel tunnel trouble, the pins and needles in your little fingers sound like my partner when he had carpel tunnel, trouble you can check for it by bending your wrist as far back as it will go,and if it goes numb,it could be,he had an op for it and it cured it.

jaki xx

Thanks Em & Jaki, I have tried some strict diets / heathly eating but to no avail. Dr doesn’t think its carpal, but I will mention this again during my next appt. TT. X

The little finger trouble sounded real familiar.

Mine started last autumn. Most of my problems are on the left side, so when the right little finger started to curl and straighten with a jerk, I headed for my GP. He felt the finger-to-palm joint, commented that he could feel some sort of a nodule, and said that he would arrange for me to see the “hand expert” in the practice. Two days later his secretary phoned through the appointment, another five days an I am seeing the expert. By this time I am waking up with a little finger that is curled right up (and really painful), and straightening with a real flick.
The expert confirms a nodule, produces a syringe (a mixture of local anasthetic and methyl prednisolone) takes my hand, sticks the needle into the knuckle joint, and comments that I might need a second injection. Within two days the pain has gone and the finger is moving smoothly. Ever since, I have exercised the finger as the expert has directed.The question of MS as a cause never came up.

OK so far - then a month ago the end joint of that same finger started to feel a touch stiff. The apparent stiffness spread down the finger, and it looks like the same problem is back. This morning, I woke to a finger that uncurled with a perceptable flick, but this faded away after an hour or so. No pain as yet, but I am holding my breath.

Now I have to do battle with the Surgery appointments system once again

Geoff