Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group

For the last few months I thought maybe I was in menopause. Lots of waking at night hot and soaked. no fevers. GYN says no according to bloodwork. Not even in premenopause yet. Since I have been off RA meds since Jan. it has only gotten worse. Now I get them during the day to and the flulike symptons are hitting every night at about 6pm and I am sick the rest of the night and running fevers. Anybody else get these symptons from RA? I went from dressing like an eskimo for the raynauds to even though my hands and feet are triggering i am HOT and am wearing almost nothing in my house but my hands and feet are purple and numb. It is a very umcomfortable feeling to be so hot and cold at the same time.

I'll say this much. I am not going to go thru menopause gracefully with all this other crap going on.

ya i have intromedous and they steted me on lupron wich put u in metapause they up my hormone up and that helps some and now with r a that fever felling seems to never go away the doc said that flu like felling is apart of ra i have found that keeping my hands and feet uncoverd at all time help some .hope u find some relife wish i could say more to help .

The rheumy said my hot flashes are cause by Celexa (Depression med).

Like you, I went from extreme cold to unbearable hot.

The soaking, running down my back, hair wet....off comes the clothes, kind of hot.

I still have them though not as often.

And it is as if my body cannot arrive at a comfortable temp...too hot or too cold.

Hugs

When I developed RA in 2006, I had already spent some 8 years or so battling heavy duty night sweats, milder daytime reactions as part of Menopause. I was on hormones for a while, then nothing when all the hoopla got crazy (I was taking the bio-identical stuff, not the horse urine). Once I started on the RA treatment with ANTIBIOTICS (minocycline first for 6 months, then switched to doxycycline...see my diary) the flashes went away and nite sweats were diminished greatly. More recently, I have been using one month of minocycline, then one month of Vibramycin (even tho I am 62 I still don't want grey teeth...a residual effect of long term minocycline use). I am finding that I get some hot flashes...more on minocycline than the time on doxycycline, I think. I need to start tracking that. Apparently each has a slightly different effect on hormones. If you are prone to night sweats and hot flashes during the day, you may find it stays with you for a decade or so...I keep hoping it will go away...by the way, please read my posting diary about using the antibiotics...works GREAT for me!!

I had that in 2004 when my heart was crazy. They said it was hormones i took for endometriosis and took me off them. Then they said it was menopause. Now - 2010 - i still have them. Not the magnatude they once were - they once were embarrassing. Now, i am either hot or cold. i can be cold and get up to get a drink and be hot with no change in the room. Now they blame my liver (my fat cola infested, fast food happy liver). Stress of being unhealthy. The only meds i'm taking right now is a feeble dose of plaquenil and a diuretic. All the other meds are vitamins of one sort or another. Not hormone pills ( and i'm to the point that shouldn't be it - been there done that wrote the book and ate it), not antibiotics. I think its just another "joyful" aspect of RA.

I will tell you this though. Climbing into a cold swimming pool with bones on fire is an interesting feeling and those roasted bones don't ache as fast.

Flulike symptoms and low grade fevers are common with RA. I have them all of the time. I even take my temperature and it's always a little high, sometimes higher than others. Then I get chills too. I'd swear I was getting the flu, except no other symptoms are present.

Nice to know it's not just me. They haven't been as bad the last couple weeks but it still happens. Some of it I know is the raynauds but when it hits the whole body it's both the Raynauds and the RA and just horrible. Parts of me me feel like they are below zero while at the same time the rest of me feels like it is roasting. I start shaking, then the nausea, then the vomiting, my hands and feet look like blue/gray corpse limbs and feel frostbitten and the rest of me has sweat beads. So uncomfortable. Worse when it happens in public and in front of friends. This duo temp thing is just new for me and something more to get used to. Up until now I always related the "flulike symptons" to sensitive skin ,nausea, and just feeling ill. Now it's..well..just worse.

Donna,

You give such good advice for someone who is going through so much sh*t. lol

I can't even imagine the feeling of some parts freezing and the others so hot. I get hot, but never have the freezing. I don't feel faint or anything. I just get claustrophobic and am willing to kill my husband (who I love very much) if he tries to cuddle up to me at night when it's happening.

I enjoy reading your posts, even if i don't usually respond.

Take care,

Paulette

Paulette, although I never get nausea and vomiting with just the freezing from the rayanuds, I would still rather be just the hot part. It passes quickly. The Raynauds frostbite feeling crap is highly painful and episodes last about an hour. Here in Michigan, when the temps are like 20 and worse, it triggers back to back nonstop. It is really miserable. Add to that, joint and muscle flares and your bed ridden. I wish they would just find that magic cure all for all of us. Ahhhhhh......summer's coming!

Donna, So far I've just had the fevers that come and go, feeling like the flu. But, I can't imagine going through such horrible hardships as with this Reynauds, and I hope you can get some relief very soon. I wish I could bring some of the Florida Sunshine to you! I am from Michigan too, and the only thing I don't miss are those very harsh winters. But I'll keep you in my prayers. Take Care. Barbara