Muscle and joint pain. You may experience pain and stiffness, with or without swelling. This affects most people with lupus. Common areas for muscle pain and swelling include the neck, thighs, shoulders, and upper arms.
Lupus can also cause inflammation in the joints, which doctors call “inflammatory arthritis.” It can make your joints hurt and feel stiff, tender, warm, and swollen.
Pain and aching in your muscles is common with lupus. You'll usually feel it in your thighs and upper arms. In about 5%-10% of people with lupus, the disease advances to myositis, which can cause painful muscle inflammation, especially in your shoulders, upper arms, hips, and thighs.
Try taking a hot shower, soaking in a bath or hot tub, or placing a warm towel on the area that hurts. Build exercise into your daily routine. Moving your body for just a few minutes each day can help you to manage pain. Always check with your doctor or physical therapist before starting a new type of exercise.
It is not uncommon for people with lupus to experience muscle aches and pain (myalgias) or have inflammation of certain muscle groups (myositis), which causes weakness and loss of strength.
People with inflammatory arthritis, including lupus, commonly report foot complaints that include pain, impairment and disability. Foot problems in lupus can involve any of the tissue structures in the foot/ankle.
Common symptoms that indicate a flare are: Ongoing fever not due to an infection. Painful, swollen joints. An increase in fatigue.
An itchy rash on the legs could be a sign of lupus, particularly if it develops in response to environmental triggers that often affect people with lupus or if they have a family history of the disease. The rash may look similar to sunburn, cause circular lesions, or cause scaly patches with distinct edges.
Many people described the pain of lupus as similar to having the flu. This means having chills and bone-weary aches throughout your entire body. The pain can be numbing and leave you feeling drained of all energy. “I explain it to others as feeling like the flu: achy joints, muscles, bones.”
Muscle and joint pain.
This affects most people with lupus. Common areas for muscle pain and swelling include the neck, thighs, shoulders, and upper arms.
During the course of their disease, approximately 95% of lupus patients will have joint symptoms − either arthritis or arthralgias. Arthritis in lupus is due to inflammation of the lining of the joint (called synovitis) that leads to swelling, tenderness, and stiffness. Arthralgia refers to joint pain without swelling.
Kidneys About one half of people with lupus experience kidney involvement, and the kidney has become the most extensively studied organ affected by lupus.
Having lupus can make everyday life challenging. When your lupus is active, symptoms like joint stiffness, pain, fatigue, confusion, or depression can make simple tasks difficult — and sometimes impossible. Since these symptoms aren't visible, the people around you may have trouble understanding how you feel.
NSAIDs are used to reduce inflammation, pain and fever associated with lupus. They include over-the-counter medications such as ibuprofen (for example, Nurofen®), or prescription medications such as Voltaren® Celebrex® and Orudis®.
Living with lupus can be hard, but a positive outlook is important. You can do several things to help you live with lupus. A good place to start managing your lupus is to work with your doctor and take your medications as directed. At times, you may feel sadness and anger.
Anti-Nuclear Antibody (ANA) Test. Anti-nuclear antibodies (ANA) are autoantibodies to the nuclei of your cells. 98% of all people with systemic lupus have a positive ANA test, making it the most sensitive diagnostic test for confirming diagnosis of the disease.
Lupus symptoms can also be unclear, can come and go, and can change. On average, it takes nearly six years for people with lupus to be diagnosed, from the time they first notice their lupus symptoms.
No one test can diagnose lupus. The combination of blood and urine tests, signs and symptoms, and physical examination findings leads to the diagnosis.
Lupus can inflame the kidneys, causing permanent damage. This can lead to swelling in the legs and high blood pressure. Your doctor will look for protein or blood cells in your urine, which are signs of kidney damage.
Severe abdominal pain. Chest pain or shortness of breath. Seizures. New onset of a fever or if your fever is much higher than usual.
The effects lupus may have in and around the eyes include: changes in the skin around the eyelids, dry eyes, inflammation of the white outer layer of the eyeball, blood vessel changes in the retina, and damage to nerves controlling eye movement and affecting vision.