Sjogrens World Forums

I hear from my rhumy that joints pain is present in almost every sjogren patient.... This forum will give more accurate data point.

it's urgent as my appointment with rhumy is coming up shortly.

I think it may depend on what else you have going on.

Dear friends

We just have four votes.....we can surely have more friends cast their votes.

My clinical picture is severe dryness/exocrinpathy...with periodic joint pain (rare so far).  My Hopkins rheumatologist seems to think I am part of the group without systemic neurological involvement.  ... or an uninteresting, but rare case of Male sjogrens.

I have fatigue since onset around 12 years ago. My joint pain got worse after Hashimoto?s diagnosis.

Anna

My joint pain is complicated by severe osteoarthritis. 

My Immune Disorder (functions just like Sjogren's) causes Inflammation...and inflammation makes everything hurt.  Sometimes even my 'long bones' (bones in my legs and arms) hurt...more than joints can hurt, it turns out.

Regards, Elaine

It doesn't make much difference what other people suffer with. If you look up the symptoms of Sjogrens you will see fatigue and body aches and/or arthritis. The bone aching in Sjogrens is not Rheumatoid arthritis. If you have really bad joint aches with red swollen joints the docs should be doing blood work to check for Rheumatoid arthritis.

With Sjogrens and any autoimmune disease pretty much, it is really common to have fatigue and joint pain either together or at different times? This doesn't mean that it is a daily occurrence with either of them. The fatigue and joint pain can come and go. That is the nature of Sjogrens and autoimmune disease. I can be exhausted for a couple of hours and then have more energy for a couple of hours. These are the times that I will overdue and then pay the price for doing too much.

Several years ago I felt pretty much like my old self for about 3-4 hours and I cleaned house, washed clothes, vacuumed, etc. It felt so wonderful. First time I had felt like that in many years and it hasn't happened again. I remember my hubby telling me to go sit down cause you know you will pay for this. He was right. Couldn't hardly move for a week.

If your doctor isn't believing you when you say you have fatigue and joint pain then he doesn't understand autoimmune disease. Others can't see fatigue or joint pain so they think we are lying about how we feel. Get your brain trained in whist you want to tell the doc. If he isn't giving you any help, such as Plaguenil, which helps with fatigue and aching, then maybe time for a second opinion. Good luck. Irish

Hi Irish,

My problem is the opposite. I do not have fatigue and joints pain. Hence multiple rheumatologists think i do not have sjogren !!!

But i have dry eyes, dry mouth, dry skin, face pain, numb hands/legs, gluten intolerance. All of these started only in the last two years. Which i think indicates sjogren beyond doubt.

But looks like doctors are obsessed with "fatigue and joints pain" as a necessary symptom in sjogren. I am sero negative which is not helping either.

happylife.

As Irish  points out, the fact that we have these two symptoms does not necessarily mean they're Sjogrens related.   However for what it's worth, I have had very bad fatigue from the time my sicca symptoms got going. 

Joint pain is much less of a problem for me at present, though I do sometimes get it in my arms and hands at night.

By the way happylife, you might get more replies if you put 'Poll' in the thread title. 

Thanks Araminta. I have done the change.

I do not have joint pain and fatigue anymore. I used to after diagnosis with Sjogren's. But thyroid meds cured my fatigue & green lip mussle extract cured my painful joints.

i have sjogren, I know from lip biopsy, dry mouth dry eyes but little fatigue and very seldom  some joint pain that goes away with  physiotherapy treatment.

I have joint pain almost every day. I also have fatigue. I usually wake up very tired and require a short nap during lunch to make it through the day. Sometimes I get profound fatigue where I stay in bed. Hope this helps, good luck at your appointment.

I became aware of joint pain and fatigue before I was aware of dry eyes and mouth. Though looking back I know I've had all the symptoms for a long time.

Like others I have more than one form of arthritis, in fact, I have three. So, I would take care with showing a doctor a simple poll of this group as many of us have more complicated situations than might seem to be the case. FYI I don't mean to scold, just take care as some docs get pretty annoyed when you compare yourself to others.

Just to let you know that the joint pain with the hashimotos is really miserable and it is hard too distinguish from other autoimmune things. The only way I found out it was from thyroid was that I was due for my thyroid blood work and my TSH was 14.8. I had an increase in my thyroid med and in 2 weeks or so met joint pain was little or nothing. So, yes,m it is true that other autoimmune diseases can cause the pain also.

Be aware that it is hard to diagnose Sjogrens and docs do't do it easily. One of the reasons is they could be wrong. If you get nailed with an autoimmune disease and don't have it there could be repercussions with health insurance. Sometimes our rates can raise for strange reasons. Docs are usually careful about nailing people with a diagnosis that could come back to haunt them. Also, I don't know if you had any positive blood work or not. Plus there are other autoimmune diseases that have dryness as a sign. Isee you put down gluten intolerance. Have you had testing to see if you have Celiac disease which is autoimmune. My hubby had Celiac as does my youngest son and his oldest son was diagnosed when he was 5 years old or so.

Celiac patients had dryness ands they also have a lot of aching in there body. The good thing is that there are other doctors to see and there are needs to be treated with that don't require a specific diagnosis to get some relief. I will also tell yoyo that doctors hate being told what we think we have. I did that a few times and it ends up with being sent home with no help from the doc. Unfortunately not all docs are able to sit and discuss symptoms easily. I still suggest that you see immunologist. You cab run all over spending money and not find out a thing. Be sure to find out if the immunologist likes to deal with autoimmune diseases. Some immunologist like to specialize in allergies. Good luck. Irish

I have had dry eye/mouth for several years, becoming SIGNIFICANTLY worse in the last few months. Also, I notice new pain in joints I know are not arthritic and increased fatigue - again, for the last few months. I do not have a verified diagnosis of Sjogrens, but have suspected it for a long time. Must be something auto-immune, I have 3 other auto-immune conditions....why not? ::)

Plan to discuss with GP in next month, hoping I can avoid expensive rheumy, as I am under-insured. Sorry, TMI....but I did participate in the poll. I hope lack of verified diagnosis is not exclusionary.

May peace and comfort find you all.