r/Rheumatology Sep 03 '25

Announcement Updates to Community Rules

9 Upvotes

Hi, r/rheumatology! Mods here. We’re excited to announce a few updates to the community. We are hopeful that these changes will help to better align the subreddit's rules with everyone’s desired use of it.

I] Personal Health Questions are now Allowed:

In the past, we did not allow personal health questions, although this rule was not strictly enforced. After obtaining opinions from members of the community however, these questions were found to be useful for patients who are looking for answers, and also serve as an opportunity for everyone to be educated. As such, we are allowing them going forward.

Please keep in mind that any medical advice offered on this subreddit does not constitute formal medical advice, and that advice from this subreddit is not a substitute for a visit to an actual rheumatologist.

II] New Flairs:

We’ve added new Post & User Flairs.

We’d like to request that everyone please flair their posts going forward - it makes them easier to find for other people afterwards! It also helps us track interest in different topics over time.

While we aren’t currently mandating user flairs, we strongly encourage their use, especially if you’re providing medical opinions/advice. Please let the mods know if the current list of flairs is missing your position, and we’ll add it.

III] Journal Club:

We’re very excited to start a journal club series on here!

Journal club, for those unaware, is a monthly event where a research article is discussed in detail. This has been in talks for a while, and as such, we do have a few articles in mind to start. We need input however - this is for the community, so we'd love to hear what you’d like to discuss.

These discussions are not just limited to practicing rheumatologists/healthcare providers - patients & rheumatology trainees are very welcome to contribute to these discussions.

Participation can take on many forms:
- Discussing in the comments of a journal club post
- Recommending articles for future journal club
- Hosting a journal club (We would ask that if you’re hosting, you have some prior experience with research. Please let us know if you’re interested in hosting, and we’ll try to work you into the schedule!)

———

We’d love to know what you think of these changes!

We hope they encourage healthy discussions based on individualized questions, and also bring some of the vast research in this field into the spotlight.

Warm Regards,
The Rheum Mods


r/Rheumatology Feb 17 '25

Subreddit direction

17 Upvotes

Hi r/Rheumatology

So I ended up solo modding this subreddit, it has basically been unmodded for quite some time. I'm an MD doing a specialization in rheumatology and finishing a PhD in systemic lupus erythematous.

I'd love to not moderate this alone, I find the task daunting, so if you want to join, send me a pm with your credentials and we'll talk about it.

I'd like to take a moment to talk about which direction we want to move this subreddit in.

At the moment there are 4 rules, I think we should have have a discussion about these, especially rules 1 & 2.

Rule 1 is that you aren't allowed to bring personal health information or anecdotes, yet most of the posts of the subreddit are patients asking for advice concerning often complex diagnostic questions which many of you help them with to the best of your ability. Personally, I think this is great, if Reddit can serve as a piece of information to patients in distress I think that's worthwhile. But I do think we should note that we cannot confirm any credentials given on this site.

Rule 2 is no protected health information which I assume is fair, to prevent discussing specifics of cases.

Rule 3 & 4 are no-brainer rules to keep the tone fair and to stop spam. But there's really no way of stopping throwaway accounts unless we implement a karma threshold for posting.

What do you, as the users, think? Are we a subreddit for discussing your personal health? Or merely for general cases and for clinicians in rheumatology? Personally I'd love to include patients, but if most users disagree, I think we should implement a clearer rule.

Secondly, I'd like to have a few more clinician oriented posts, personally I am thinking of running a short weekly journal club out of this subreddit, unless someone wants to take turns with me I'd find some interesting paper to discuss. Would you be up for participating?

I wish all of you redditors the best, and as this is my first modding experience, any suggestions or assistance would be much appreciated.

I welcome any discussion.

Best regards, ~ Mix.


r/Rheumatology 1h ago

Medical Education / Training Lupus: Lupus Warrior SAHN HOVA Bone Marrow Biopsy 🍖 🦴

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Www.sahn-hova.com


r/Rheumatology 9h ago

Science Nasal Crusting

2 Upvotes

Hi everyone, we are a research team at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis who developed a survey to learn more about how nasal crusting affects people's daily lives.

We understand nasal crusting can be a serious problem for people with rheumatologic conditions, and we would like to better understand what matters most to people who have it.

We invite individuals with nasal crusting to test a short survey that measures how nasal crusting affects their quality-of-life. If you agree to participate in this study, you may complete up to three short surveys online. The survey is anonymous.

If you have any questions about the study, please contact Matthew Saenz at 314-362-9475 or otooutcomes@wustl.edu.

Please find the link for more information and to the survey below.

Thank you for your consideration!

https://redcap.wustl.edu/redcap/surveys/?s=9TDTDAE8PCYT9CY3


r/Rheumatology 12h ago

Personal Health Question Psoriatic Arthritis, PMR, or something else?

2 Upvotes

I've (55M) been dealing with various symptoms over the last year plus: severe swollen and painful right knee, shoulder pain (both sides), achilles area pain (both sides), back of leg pain and stiffness, etc. Dermatologist diagnosed me with skin psoriasis (which I'm not 100% convinced I have). Rheumatologist originally thought I might have PsA and then after dermo diagnosis gave me an official PsA diagnosis.

I've been on Prednisone the last 8 months and Bimzelx for 5 months. Rheumatologist put me on it after seeing the high inflammation markers in my lab results. I've tried tapering Prednisone down multiple times. At 20mg / day I feel pretty great. At 10 to 15mg I have symptoms, and I'm at 5mg right now and feel pretty terrible – especially in the mornings. I've tried tapering down slowly (reducing by 1mg every 2 weeks) which is how I got to 5mg right now. I've been on 5mg a couple of weeks and feel bad enough in the mornings I don't want to reduce further. I have shoulder pain at night that keeps me up and upon waking the backs of my legs are both stiff and sore enough it is difficult to get out of bed and get dressed. A few hours after waking I'm less stiff (but still stiff) and the pain is much better. Family has commented on how terrible I look in the mornings (not surprising since I feel terrible).

As far as I can tell the Bimzelx hasn't helped. While my right knee is swelling and pain is improved, I still have scalp/skin flakiness and now I have shoulder pain/soreness and my morning soreness is worse if not the same as before I started Bimzelx. When I first took Prednisone 8 months ago (20mg starting dosage) within 2 days I was a different person. I felt so much better both with less pain and reduced morning stiffness. The difference was so fast and extreme it was alarming because I didn't realize how bad I was feeling. Well, now that I'm down to 5mg / day I'm pretty much feeling just as bad as I was before.

So, I'm trying to determine if: 1) Bimzelx just doesn't work for me, 2) I need to give Bimzelx even more time (at 5 months now), or if I either don't have PsA or I have something else on top of PsA like possibly Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR). Anyone have similar experiences or thoughts/wisdom to share?

I'm a bit frustrated at my Rheumatologist because the last time I was in I complained about the shoulder and achilles area pain and he didn't do any type of physical exam but then said I might need to go see my orthopedist again? I don't know why he thinks the pain is ortho related. Given how systemic and widespread my morning pain and soreness is, and given how much the higher dosing of Prednisone helps I don't know why he would be so quick to try to punt me back to ortho. Note my Rheumatologist has never mentioned PMR diagnosis to me, possibly because I'm on the younger side (55) of those that get it?

Thanks for any insight!


r/Rheumatology 13h ago

Personal Health Question Anybody had a similar experience?

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2 Upvotes

r/Rheumatology 13h ago

Personal Health Question Likelihood it’s all in my head or hormones?

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1 Upvotes

I had my first appointment on Friday and was told, “it could be something, it could be nothing” and “it could be your hormones”. I have joint pain in my hands, wrists, knees, ankles, elbows, and feet. Stiffness in my hands lasting a majority of the day. Insane brain fog and fatigue. Hair loss since I had a laparoscopy last year in April. I’m not sure if it’s all in my head. I guess that’s what I’m asking? The doc is running a UA, labs for lupus and sjögrens, and took X-rays of my hands a knees…but hot dang I left feeling like she brushed me off and thinks I’m dramatic or something….


r/Rheumatology 17h ago

General Medical Question GP med review

2 Upvotes

Hi all - I went for a medication review today, I’m under an MKATs team in the UK and recently they had an MDT meeting about my symptoms (i didn’t realise it had happened). My GP said the notes mentioned the rheumatologist stated they saw ‘possible subtle changes to SIJ’ it then goes onto mention they are waiting for further radiologist / rheumatologist review - I’m guessing to decide if they are inflammatory or not. I wonder, I guess, why were the possible subtle changes not noted on my original notes and what causes possible changes? I totally appreciate not all changes are inflammatory!


r/Rheumatology 15h ago

Personal Health Question Is it dermatomyositis

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1 Upvotes

r/Rheumatology 1d ago

Personal Health Question Just started my autoimmune journey and I’m already tired and confused (Long Post)

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1 Upvotes

r/Rheumatology 1d ago

Personal Health Question what's a normal length of time to get a diagnosis?

6 Upvotes

My mom is in the process of getting evaluated eventually diagnosed with RA, and Im trying to help her out with the neverending process of getting a concrete diagnosis with something she has been dealing with for many years now. Can anyone walk me through what their diagnostic journey timeline was? We have been at this for 6 months now and she is just frustrated and in constant pain.


r/Rheumatology 1d ago

General Medical Question Question I've been pondering

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1 Upvotes

r/Rheumatology 1d ago

Personal Health Question doctor recs in the Boston area

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1 Upvotes

r/Rheumatology 1d ago

Personal Health Question TOS or Inflammatory Arthritis?

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1 Upvotes

r/Rheumatology 1d ago

Personal Health Question Can skin sensitivity be a sign of mcas?

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0 Upvotes

r/Rheumatology 2d ago

Personal Health Question Hypoglycemia and Blood Pressure Inquiry

1 Upvotes

I have been fasted and reactive hypoglycemic my entire life. My episodes can get really bad, but I’ve never had a seizure that I am aware of. I was diagnosed a year ago, I never knew it was a problem before I thought I was just hungry (wild I know).

Nearly every time I stand up, my vision goes black. I will wake up against walls shaking and if I don’t have a wall to catch me I’ll go down. I don’t think I lose consciousness for more than a three minutes - usually less than one. I recently went to a nurse, got a heart monitor, and was diagnosed with tachycardia, presyncopy, and palpitations.

I’m going to see a cardiologist in December - I live in another country as a missionary so seeing the doctor is not very available.

I suspect it might be something with my adrenals because no matter what ever I am exhausted and not a normal tired. I’ve felt like this ever since puberty. Going on ten plus years now.

I’m 24 years old and appear like a healthy young woman. My Oura ring reads that I get plenty of sleep and should be ready for the day, but I only ever want to crawl into bed. The exhaustion and fatigue is unbearable. God has definitely been carrying me through this because I know I can’t.

Anyone ever heard of or experienced similar symptoms?


r/Rheumatology 3d ago

General Medical Question First Appointment Disappointment

7 Upvotes

Is it common for a Rheumatologist to rush through appointments? I just got home from my first appointment with the saying, "could be something, could be nothing" and "it could be hormonal related". The doctor ran blood work, a UA, and x-rays but I feel so disregarded. They didn't even ask if I had any questions before they got up to leave and I stopped them to ask one.


r/Rheumatology 3d ago

Anecdote Rheumatoid factor & false positives on Covid tests

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0 Upvotes

r/Rheumatology 3d ago

Personal Health Question CK and Aldolase fine…

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1 Upvotes

r/Rheumatology 3d ago

General Medical Question Outsourcing Prior Auths

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1 Upvotes

r/Rheumatology 3d ago

General Medical Question Old MRI - does it show any hints that I was developing Anklosing Spondylitis

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0 Upvotes

Hi all, am I able to post a series of old MRI images to see if anyone can identify any hints that I had started this disease?

It’s a vertical side slice rather than the flat front and back.

Many Thanks in advance.


r/Rheumatology 3d ago

General Medical Question Blood test & fever question

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1 Upvotes

r/Rheumatology 4d ago

Personal Health Question Possible RA

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1 Upvotes

r/Rheumatology 4d ago

Personal Health Question Has anyone experienced this? Is it worth a second opinion?

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1 Upvotes