determine if you have Rheumatoid Arthritis? I was in the chiropractor's office yesterday and the secretary and I were talking. I mentioned casually I have one knuckle on my right hand which is larger than the others and my left hand has one which is increasing in size. The secretary asked if she could clench both hands into a fist. I did and she says 'your hands look just like my husband's. He has Rheumatoid Arthritis.'

I never used to have the different sized knuckles. They used to look, well, normal. I also found out from my dentist somehow I managed to split a nerve root in a tooth. I saw the xray with my eyes and it is split. He mentioned my teeth are 'lowering' in height and I need to drink more milk.

I eating cereal every day. Get lots of calcium. How can my teeth begin shrinking?

That got me to thinking. Is it possible all this time I may have been misdiagnosed with MS and all the lesions seen on the films were really RA? I also have one elbow which is this sounds weird but 'pointer' than the other and a little longer.' Man, I know. Stop looking and thinking too much, right?

My entire right ankle burns constantly. It is a good thing my Rheumatologist's appointment is coming up in less than two weeks.

I have heard the hands are the hallmark of RA and so is symetrical joint pain. There is criteria for the diagnosis of RA. I'm bad with links but if you google "mercola rheumatoid arthrits" there is an interesting article and at the bottom of the article there is the criteria a rheumatologist has to use to diagnose RA. It is informative. I have never heard of lesions being used for RA diagnosis, but that's just me. My diagnosis was based on symestrical visible swelling in knees, and wrists and a couple fingers. Now it is just my right side only and my lower back feels like it has arthrtis and so does my sternum, so I feel like I am a mix of AS and RA. Also my diagnosis was based on my labs, ccp, raised crp and esr.

Hope that you get a proper diagnosis,take care.