Arthritis or just crohns flare?

[nogutsnoglory]

My joints and bones are killing me! I have pain walking, sitting and doing simple tasks. I am also frequently facing chills and freezing for no reason.

I am flaring now but can this just be a symptom of crohns flare or does this mean I have a whole new AI disease?

 

[Dukeis]

I have had joint pain for years and the doctor always told me it was associated to a flare and would pretty much blow me off. They would tell me if the Crohn's is treated the joint pain will be also. I could never correlate it with a flare. Now I have changed doctors recently and they are leaning towards me also having Ankylosing spondylitis. Strange thing to me though is the Humira doesn't seem to help much. My Rheumatologist has told me that some anti-tnf's will work on both, some will work on one but not the other. Which makes sense to me because Remicade helped both.

 

[PVail]

This is a difficult one as I have had joint pain ,ankles and wrists ever since I started on Asacol but i had to way the benefits for my IBD against the joint pain. I think joint pain is definetly associated with IBD but to what extent I dont know. I take Amitriptyline for the pain and it works ok.
I would say that during a bad flare everything hurts , is it that I take more meds to bring it back down I dont know.

 

[Grumbletum]

If they are new symptoms, they could be related to the flare. I had bad joint pain and chills when I first became ill, and more recently in the months leading up to my surgery. Since the resection, they've all but disappeared. Hopefully you can get get the flare under control, and if the pains persist then, I would get them checked out.

 

[KayleighMeek]

Hi,
Sorry to hear you are having joint pain it is horrible. I have been diagnosed with enteropathic arthritis it affects crohns disease and other IBD and is more common if you have disease in your colon.
I am currently having a flare up of arthritis but no crohns symproms usually I get joint pain and then flare.So far I have had steroid injections into my joints and it last a couple of weeks then the pain comes back and I have also started sulfasalazine to try and get the joint issues under control.
I would deffinatley mention it to your GI and see of you can get refered to a rheumatologist who will do and examination, blood tests and X-rays to see what is going on.
Hope you start to feel better soon

 

[my little penguin]

Second the seeing a Rheumo.
DS does not have arthritis yet per his Rheumo but does get joint pain a lot with his Ibd.
The Rheumo does a better job at handling it since it is their area.
Good luck

 

[nogutsnoglory]

I might have to see one. I just feel like every specialist gives me a new diagnosis and a new prescription.

 

[pat461]

hi all i am pat i have had crohns since 1983 i was only dx after i had a blood test show that i had lost 4 and a half units of blood, my doc thought i had bad piles. was rushed into hospital told what i had and treated. now at 45 i think i am having a major flaire up so its back on the asacol and and off to the docs again (dam sure it not piles this time ).I have joint pain tummy pain constapaiton itchy skin just waiting for the bloody poo and i will have a full house. .... have fun

pat

 

[nogutsnoglory]

Ugh so miserable again today. I'm just afraid to goto a rheumatologist. I don't want more meds!

 

[my little penguin]

well you can be in pain or go to the rheumo who can tell you if it is arthritis or ibd related or both and then fix you up.
Meds are not a good thing but sometimes a necessary evil.
good luck

 

[nogutsnoglory]

I'm gonna look into one and get checked out. I'm leaning towards thinking I have some form of arthritis or fibromyalgia.

 

[Higbonzo]

My joints and bones are killing me! I have pain walking, sitting and doing simple tasks. I am also frequently facing chills and freezing for no reason.

I am flaring now but can this just be a symptom of crohns flare or does this mean I have a whole new AI disease?

Sad to hear you are feeling this way.

I hate to say it, but it is probably the Crohn's. I have had joint pain for 30 years. We went down every avenue in Rhuemetology. After about 10 years, and more information coming out about Crohn's, my reumatologist told me that I need to be treated by GI only. He was right. Everything reumatology gave me for the arthritis just kept me in a state of active Crohn's. By the 15th year my GI specialist told me as long as I was feeling joint pain I was in a state of active Crohn's. By the 20th year I finally, "got it", and really pulled back on trying to live any type of active, or near normal life (or, what I precieved to be normal). What finally brought me around was being carted off in an emergency vehicle, and seeing the look in my childrens eyes, that got me to really change my lifestyle. I take it "EASY". I wish I could tell you that I have went into some kind of remission, but that would be a lie. But, I have a pretty severe case, and I am happy with the condition of life I have now. I have not had a hostpital stay in 10 years, and manage everything from home now. For some of us, that is just good enough.

Oh, And I have had the best Doctors. I was at UofM, where I had two surgeries, and now have Dr's. at UofF.

I really hope you start feeling better soon.

Peace and love.

 

[nogutsnoglory]

I'm so sorry you have to and had to go through all that. None of the crohns meds help with the arthritis like pains and lack of energy?

 

[Higbonzo]

I'm so sorry you have to and had to go through all that. None of the crohns meds help with the arthritis like pains and lack of energy?

Thanks. Prednsone helps my pain. They don't like to give it to me anymore (I am already having problems with the gel in my eyes), but I have been thinking of trying to get on it again. I take Budesonide and pain killers. Everthing else they gave me for crohn's made me worse. My problem has never been a lack of energy, up until lately, but I am into my 50's now. I think the fact that I have always been high strung probably made it that much harder for me to deal with this disease appropriately. But truely, no matter what I do I am in constant pain. It migrates thoughout the body. I have learn to live with it, but there are areas it's settles into that are much worse than other. Here is a link to tell you a bit about it. http://www.ccfa.org/resources/arthritis.html

I just hope you get yours under control. Crohn's can do lots of bad things, not just make you tummy hurt. It can get a person from anus to lips with ulcer, to fistulas. (I had a fistula at my stoma site). It can give you sores on your body (I have had them on my legs). It can give you Crohn's artrithtis (you already know this) It can effect your eyes (and not just from the meds). and I am sure some other things I have not listed.

My point is, take it serious. If you smoke stop, if you drink, stop or slow down, if you are overdoing it, try to slow down. The shitty thing is, we don't always have choices in some of what is going on in our lives. I am a man, but I stayed home and raised my two daughters. I used to have to get cordizone shot in my shoulders because I had to be able to lift my children. My shoulders hurt me on and off for nearly 10 years, and still do. But, once I didn't have to lift the girls, give the great dad shoulder rides, or pick them up just to move them along, my shoulder started feeling better after a few years.

Anyways. I am not trying to scare you. I wouldn't trade my life for anything. But, that is just cause I am so great. But, aren't we all?!

Learn to listen to your body. Look into all the possible outcomes with med givien to you. Sometime they make things worse, that is why you need to listen to you body. Read up on this disease as much as you dare. I used to know so much about the diease, but at a certain point you have to live the life you have, that, and information changes over time. In some ways this disease had made me more than I would have ever been in my healthy life.

It's all good.

Peace and love.

Phil

ps. keep an eye on the barometer, you may find that you can feel when it is rising and falling from it's normal postion for your area (our area average is 30.10), It only has to move a few points to drive up the pain level. You may notice it before it even registers on the barometer. What a world!

 

[Gra]

My joints and bones are killing me! I have pain walking, sitting and doing simple tasks. I am also frequently facing chills and freezing for no reason.
I am flaring now but can this just be a symptom of crohns flare or does this mean I have a whole new AI disease?

My first question would be, what medications are you taking?. I briefly tried Imuran, and for the first time ever I experienced arthritis. It was like I aged 20 or 30 years overnight.. I had arthritic pains and stiffness in my back, in my hips and in my knees. My GI immediately took me off Imuran and within 3 to 4 days the arthritic symptoms disappeared - thank goodness. For a while I thought I was going to have the arthritis forever.

As for the chills and freezing, I was having these before I was even diagnosed with Crohn's disease. In fact they were one of the reasons my Dr sent me for a lot of tests in the first place, which eventually led to my diagnosis.

Yesterday for the first time in months, in the middle of a warm summer's afternoon, I began shaking uncontrollably and feeling like I was freezing cold. Add to that last night I experienced a huge night sweat. I think that both of these may be attributable to the fact that in the last few days I've finally got off prednisolone.

So in my view, it could be something to do with medications that you are on, or that you are terminating, alternatively I think it could be because you're having a flare. IMHO.

Hope this helps.

 

[Gra]

This is a difficult one as I have had joint pain ,ankles and wrists ever since I started on Asacol but i had to way the benefits for my IBD against the joint pain. I think joint pain is definetly associated with IBD but to what extent I dont know. I take Amitriptyline for the pain and it works ok.
I would say that during a bad flare everything hurts , is it that I take more meds to bring it back down I dont know.

When I read quotes like this I have to wonder whether it is the medications that cause the symptoms, or the IBD. In my case, as soon as I stopped taking the medication (Imuran), the joint pain went away. I would hate to think that there are people out there suffering from a debilitating symptoms which are being caused by the medication that they are taking supposedly to cure it.

 

[nogutsnoglory]

I am not currently taking any meds for my crohns. I also find the chills and freezing and body pain gets worse in the evening.