All pain is not the same

For anyone who does not have arthritis the whole pain thing is something of a mystery.  They can empathise with it, but they can't understand it.  They cannot understand the draining nature for one thing.  One moment you are feeling clear and then "oh, it will go away" you think to yourself.  A little later you notice how that initial annoyance is still there,  Later still it is getting larger and more pervasive.  Then it becomes annoying.  You think to yourself, it will go away: but it doesn't, it simply doesn't go away.

This kind of pain makes joints feel stiff, so that moving any joint can be not only painful but physically draining.  No wonder I am sleeping and resting more that I have in my life before.

That's how I feel about the aches that come on.  The only way to get rid of them is a dose of medication.  And if the pain is clearly rising then the amount of medication does not matter.  All that matters is the time it takes for the meds to become effective.

Add to the aches the piercing raw nerve-end pain of touching a joint that is inflamed against a surface, be it a door, a chair, or even the kind hand of a friend.  Particularly vulnerable are fingers and feet.  This is the pain that follows a flare, what I think of as the result of eating some inappropriate food.  Whatever caused it matters little, when I get that pain all that matters is protecting affected joints with the rest of my body.

Then, and thank goodness I have only had this a few times, there is the all encompassing pain of inflammation going rampant.  One night I called the emergency services for advice.  I was completely beyond myself, no matter what I did I felt my hand was going to explode - and that is pretty much what it looked like.