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I Have Been Experiencing Muscle Weakness , Pain In Hands
Question: I have been experiencing muscle weakness, pain in hands and feet and pain in hips for a few months now, I am a 63 yr old female, Ive lost strength in my hands can barely open a jar.
Brief Answer:
Detailed answer below
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
I carefully read your query. Your symptoms can be caused by a variety of conditions from neurologic conditions to autoimmune ones and some more information might help in a better understanding of which might be the cause or the needed steps to diagnosis.
- Do you have swelling or redness of the feet and hands?
- Have you noticed weight loss recently?
- Any skin lesions or mucosal lesions (mouth ulcers or others)
- Do you have any fever even subfebrile (little increased fever from normal but not 100.4 F)
- Do you have any numbness in any are of your body?
- Problems with vision, speech, swallowing, problems with balance and other neurological symptoms?
- Any headaches?
- Do you suffer from chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes, or other ones?
- Have you done any tests recently to make sure you are healthy like: CBC, ERS, liver and kidney function tests (ALT, AST, bilirubin, creatinin, electrolytes), sugar blood level test and lipid levels, TSH and FT$ to check the thyroid function.
Patients with weakness and pains need a good physical examination including a neurological exam where the doctor determines the muscular strength of all the muscle groups, sensation, reflexes and tone in all 4 limbs and the face. He also checks for muscular atrophy (thinning of muscles). All these would help to diagnose or rule out a wide range of neurological conditions (related to the brain or the peripheral nerves) that might be the cause.
Also if you have swelling, morning stiffness or redness of the joints in hands and feet then autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or other rheumatoid conditions can be considered and presence of skin lesions, mouth lesions and sometimes abnormalities in the xrays of the chest, together with some blood tests for these autoimmune can lead to the proper diagnosis.
On the other hand ruling out other common and easier to diagnose and treat conditions like diabetes, anemia, thyroid problems, problems with liver and kidney function are important as well as first step before doing extensive examinations.
I hope this answers to your query. Please let me know if I can assist you further.
Kind regards,
Dr. Antoneta Zotaj, General and Family Physician
Detailed answer below
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
I carefully read your query. Your symptoms can be caused by a variety of conditions from neurologic conditions to autoimmune ones and some more information might help in a better understanding of which might be the cause or the needed steps to diagnosis.
- Do you have swelling or redness of the feet and hands?
- Have you noticed weight loss recently?
- Any skin lesions or mucosal lesions (mouth ulcers or others)
- Do you have any fever even subfebrile (little increased fever from normal but not 100.4 F)
- Do you have any numbness in any are of your body?
- Problems with vision, speech, swallowing, problems with balance and other neurological symptoms?
- Any headaches?
- Do you suffer from chronic conditions like hypertension, diabetes, or other ones?
- Have you done any tests recently to make sure you are healthy like: CBC, ERS, liver and kidney function tests (ALT, AST, bilirubin, creatinin, electrolytes), sugar blood level test and lipid levels, TSH and FT$ to check the thyroid function.
Patients with weakness and pains need a good physical examination including a neurological exam where the doctor determines the muscular strength of all the muscle groups, sensation, reflexes and tone in all 4 limbs and the face. He also checks for muscular atrophy (thinning of muscles). All these would help to diagnose or rule out a wide range of neurological conditions (related to the brain or the peripheral nerves) that might be the cause.
Also if you have swelling, morning stiffness or redness of the joints in hands and feet then autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis or other rheumatoid conditions can be considered and presence of skin lesions, mouth lesions and sometimes abnormalities in the xrays of the chest, together with some blood tests for these autoimmune can lead to the proper diagnosis.
On the other hand ruling out other common and easier to diagnose and treat conditions like diabetes, anemia, thyroid problems, problems with liver and kidney function are important as well as first step before doing extensive examinations.
I hope this answers to your query. Please let me know if I can assist you further.
Kind regards,
Dr. Antoneta Zotaj, General and Family Physician
Note: For further queries, consult a joint and bone specialist, an Orthopaedic surgeon. Book a Call now.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Vaishalee Punj
Answered by
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