need info on RA nodules and how they work???

[casey]

Hi all,

I have a new thing i am not familiar with. I have MCTD and the presenting symptoms last yr were rashes and hives.  I started on low dose doxy 50 mg and gradually built up to 200mg  over 6 months. I did go on levaquin for a month due to possible herxing in kidney area . No lumps came up. 3 months ago , i started oral clindy and still take the doxy. Occasionally, i get a lump that forms on my wrist directly below the bottom of my thumb but on the wrist. Bloomin thing hurts for a few days, swells and then goes away. Comes back again after a few weeks and keeps doing that. Is this what RA nodules do? How do i know if this is a herx or just the disease process and AP isnt getting it?

Has anyone had this experience? Also, is this a nodule formation, i thought they stay?

Thanks,

Casey 

[whaleharbor]

I had a nodule once on my left elbow.  It was kinda painless soft swelling protrusion.  It went away on it's own.  It started to try to come back about a year ago before I started on the Doxy. Your rheumy should be able to tell you immediately if it is a nodule. 

My rheumy told me that could remove it surgically but it would just return, so I left it alone and it went away.  I think they kinda correlate (check me on this) with disease activity…but not sure.

With that said, my sister who doesn't have RA (thank God) had a similar “bump” on a finger that her Orthopedic guy said was due to her holding her pen/pencil a certain way and that it needed surgery…she opted out of surgery and it went away too.

Weird.  I would go to my rheumy…they are very familiar and will be able to tell you immediately if it is a classic nodule.

So what I'm getting at is it might not be a herx or the disease process, perhaps it is something else also benign…like my sister's. 

— whaleharbor

Minocycline 100mg every other day with food...lots of food: Zydus brand. Celecoxib 200mg twice per day: Greenstone brand.

[Michele]

I had nodules appearing on my hands before my IV in December 2007. Dr. S looked at them. They went away after the IV. Another AP patient told me her nodules eventually went away, too. I'm certain Dr. Brown's book mentions these. Dr. S said the same thing….that they may or may not go away and if they didn't they could be surgically removed.

Michele

[lynnie_sydney]

Casey – I never had nodules but a few weeks into the AP I developed one at the base of my forefinger. It lasted about 6 months, then gradually disappeared and has never come back. Dr Brown does mention it, so check out in the New Arthritis Breakthrough. Lynnie

Be well! Lynnie

Palindromic RA 30 yrs (Chronic Lyme?)
Mino 2003-2008 100mg MWF - can no longer tolerate any tetracyclines
rotating abx protocol now. From Sep 2018 MWF - a.m. Augmentin Duo 440mg + 150mg Biaxsig (roxithromycin). p.m. Cefaclor (375mg) + Klacid 125mg + LDN 3mg + Annual Clindy IV's
Diet: no gluten, dairy, sulphites, low salicylates
Supps: 600mg N-AC BID, 1000mg Vit C, P5P 40mg, zinc picolinate 60mg, Lithium orotate 20mg, Magnesium Oil, Bio-identical hormones (DHEA + Prog + Estrog)

[Maz]

Hi Casey,

About 7 months into my RA diagnosis, I developed some nodules on my thumb and forefinger….about the size of small peas on the middle joints. They were painless and disappeared over the course of the next few months. I was disappointed and concerned to find them, as they literally came up overnight and it seemed as though they were harbingers of disease severity. Dt Brown described them as usually appearing after a couple years, but these just seemed so early on in my disease. However, as I continued to get well, they were 'reabsorbed,' slowly shrinking, and never came back. 😀 

Is it possible that instead of a nodule that this is a ganglian cyst or more like a pocket of swelling/inflammation?  As far as I know, nodules tend to take a bit longer to disappear and haven't heard of them going up and down so quickly, as you've describe….maybe not out of the realms of possiblity, though.

Really nice to see you checking in, again! Hope all is well your way….aside from the bump, that is. Did you find any answers to your son's bloodwork in the end?  

Peace, Maz

[casey]

Thanks WH, Michele, Lynnie and Maz for responding here.

This nodule is confusing me not to mention the pain with it. It has appeared and left 3 times in the past but this time it seems to be holding on. 5 days now.It is very hard as well . I did read the part in Dr. Browns book about these nodules and how they can appear and disappear. I am not sure whether that applies after AP is started though. This tends to make me wonder more about the disease process instead of a herx. however on the other hand, herxing can go on in many new and weird ways long after AP has started from what i understand here. what are all your thoughts on this? It certainly is scaring me.

Maz,

I read your personal history and things are looking good. Thats great to hear! I hope we get there but i really wonder as everythng is a struggle here.

About this wrist nodule/whatever it is, i thought of a ganglion cyst . have no idea and dont see my AP doc til middle of July so i will suffer till then. She is 6 hrs away so it has to be well planned. My family physician is, cant even describe him ,and no, i havent found a thing out about my sons bloodwork and there has been no more done. i did leave a message with the family doc who did the test at my request to call me back but that never happened. I really am literally on my own here aside from my 6 hr away travels. Really pathetic. you would think he would follow up but he wont till july as i had to push for an appt to see him too. Shame he is like this especially when his sister is so sick with RA.

anyway, have you ever heard of people herxing this late into treatment? I know for some it can take yrs to get better but i am not sure whether nodules occur in the healing process and this late. Maybe it is a flare. I am really tired of being my own doc and trying to figure everything out. My fight seems to get tougher daily.

Thanks for te interest in asking about us, i appreciate it and you take care.

Blessings,

Casey

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