Raynaud Disease Support Group

I'm Manda, otherwise known as BridalWreath. I'm 22 years old. This March, I was recently diagnosed with Raynaud's. It was a four year battle of trying to figure out what was happening with my finger every winter. It tends to swell to the size of my middle finger and turns red. It also gets rather itchy. I've seen a total of five+ doctors over the years, all of which thought it was an infection, just normal swelling, etc. It was only when I went to the Rheumatologist this March that he told me that I have Raynaud's. I might also have scleroderma though at the moment, they aren't really certain thanks to the fact that for some reason, they didn't even test for it.

Anyways, it's nice to meet all of you.

Hi Manda, welcome to the group. Good luck with the testing. I don't know anyone with Raynauds and no other AI disease. Mine is MCTD and RA. usually the Raynauds starts first but not with me. I had Lupus and Polymyositis symptons for about 5 years before I noticed the Raynauds. The RA and Raynauds started at the same time.

Do you only have attacks in one finger and nowhere else?

Attacks normally occur with my pinky on my right hand. It swells and turns blue - the other fingers do chance color but not as dramatically as my pinky does. Normally during the winter, it also gets red and "shiny" and it itches like mad. Swelling lasts for all of winter, only to disappear during the spring time and never occur until next winter. And when my pinky swells, I can barely bend it at all and when I do, it is very painful.

Wow, that's just strange to me to hear it can only happen in one digit. What you describe I get in all fingers and toes, nose, and lips. When it's well down in the 20's and colder it freezes up my whole legs too. Legs haven't turned purple though, just beet red and can't move them. I also don't get any itching. Get a burning like frostbite that puts me in tears. I do get get swelling though and yes that is painful.

What area do you live? I'm just wondering if the weather has something to do with why we trigger differently. I'm in Michigan and only getting 3 to 4 months of warmth doesn't help.

Hugs

I live in Wisconsin. Idk if it is because Raynauds isn't that advanced in its condition or not.