Muscle pain or joint pain?

[Deseree]

I'm curious as to what kind of pain most people have with Sjogren's. Is it usually more like muscle pain or joint pain or both? I have suffered from what I can only describe as "adult growing pains" my entire life. I got them really bad as a kid, always in my legs, and everyone told me that they would go away as I got older, but they never did, they just decreased in intensity. Honestly I never thought much about it until recently because I have always been a very active and healthy person, and thought that it was just muscle aches from exercise. But now I'm starting to wonder. I haven't been diagnosed, as all of my bloodwork is negative so far and I'm still waiting on the Early Sjogren's test results. Logic tells me that if I've been experiencing these pains my whole life then certainly my ANA or RF should have been positive by now, but who knows. Is this achy muscle pain common to Sjogren's?

[SjoGirl]

All kinds from muscle to joint to nerve, which comes and goes, sometime with clear reason sometimes not. That said it may be helpful to keep in mind that many of us have multiple issues such as both autoimmune and osteoarthritis and other autoimmune diseases. Each of these have symptoms from pain to headaches to stomach and other issues. What I do know is that pain management is key.

[Scottietottie]

Hi 

I think I get connective tissue pain. It moves around. The joint pain I get is osteoarthritis.

Take care - Scottie 

[warmwaters]

Lots of ways to have pain:
I have
muscle pain (i.e. achy/ sore like I've worked out too hard)
joint pain (hands, feet, elbows, hips like in arthritis)
Neuropathies (shooting, sharp, jolting pains in hands, feet, face )
Back pain (per doctor this is an inflammation of Sjogren's masquerading as a pinched nerve, though I have no pinched nerve)
Glandular - parotid, lymph nodes under neck, in armpits.

Good times

[Sooki]

Occasionally, I have joint pain in my hands and fingers.  But most of time, it's point pain.  As far as I can figure, it's where the tendon attaches to the bone.   So just above and below my elbow.  Various places around my knee. There's a point midway down the outside of my calf and above my ankle that often hurts.  Either that or they're random points.

[Linda196]

Sookie, what you are describing sounds like Enthesitis, inflammation of the entheses or connective tissue that is the bridge between tendon and/or ligament and bone. It's not an uncommon "partner" of several types of arthritis, and is treated in the same way as the underlying condition

[Sooki]

Thanks, Linda!  That sounds exactly what it is.  I let my sister know too!