I'm a 39 year old female. Pretty active, always involved in sports and never had any problems really, until this last year.

My symptoms started a couple years ago, my left index finger would feel and look like it lost circulation - it would turn white in color and get cold and tingle. It would come and go.....every once and awhile....I attributed it to maybe getting frostbite sometime in the past.

I moved from Colorado to Illinois and about 6 months after that, in the winter, I noticed my hands and fingers going numb if I used my phone alot, my index finger was also turning more frequently. Could it be the change in climate, I thought? Then a few months after that, I started waking up with weakened hands/wrists. I couldn't push myself up out of bed. Then I started waking up with my fingers feeling swollen and not being able to make a fist, feeling a tightening in my palms from my wrist to my fingers. My left hand was much worse than my right. Then I started waking up in the middle of the night with just piercing pains in my left hand. It lasted for a couple months until one night I woke up literally every hour with unbearable pain. I had it. Called the doctor in the morning and she had me see a hand doctor who tested for carpel tunnel. My nerve tests showed bi-lateral carpal tunnel. He also did a cortisone shot in my left index finger, as I complained of the swelling and restrictive movement. They did surgery immediately on my left. The piercing pain was gone in my left hand immediately, though I still have the swollen fingers and tightness in my hand while making a fist. Worse in the morning...but pretty much all day long. They did the surgery on the right a couple months later, as the pain in that hand worsened quickly.

The piercing pain is gone. However...the swelling of my fingers has worsened, as has the restriction/tightness of my hands in making a fist (I can't). I have also noticed a few things - on the top of both hands (worse on the right) at the bottom of the hand/top of the wrist, I have a soft lump that flattens out when my hand is flat, but gets bigger when I bend my fingers back toward my wrists. On my left hand, I also notice a hard small, pea like bump near this. I also notice on both hands, on my palms, what looks like a tendon from the base of my little fingers, is enlarged and protruding. At first it was my index and middle fingers that were swelling, but it is now my index finger also on my left hand, as I can no longer put my wedding ring on. It will go only to the top of my middle knuckle now. I can't tell yet if the right index or little fingers are swollen, though their ability to make a fist is limited as well.

On top of my hand/finger issues - I seem to have just all over weakness/tiredness throughout my body. I can't kneel/squat down without "falling" to the ground...I can't just "pop" up off the couch or out of bed....I have to kind of "roll" off or up. When I wake up in the morning, it also hurts to walk on my feet - I can't tell if it's my ankles or the bottom of my feet...there does seem to be a lump on the bottom of my feet too though. I also seem to be just overall - more tired than I normally am. I don't have my typical energy.

I have had my doctor tell me it sounds like Renaud's disease for my finger, she has done the touch tests for fibromyalgia (negative - i am not sore), my orthopedic says the swollen tendons may just be a reaction to the surgery - though it's been over 6 months, and the lumps may just be inflamed tissue...though my wrist is getting more painful and they aren't going away. He did tests for RA and Lupus. They came back negative. My regular doctor has now sent me to a rheumatologist and he didn't see anything on the visit, though took lots of blood and urine sample. I go back in about a week for the results.

I had been taking a prescription prenatal vitamin, and stopped taking that a few weeks back, and I must say, it seems like my overall weakness has lessened. I don't know how that could have an effect on that - but it seems to have helped.

ugh! I am a pretty active person and this is killing me! I feel worthless. I have never had anything really wrong other than a broken bone here and there from sports. Anyone that has any ideas on where to go from here, I would really appreciate!

sorry for the "novel"!! i started typing and it just kept coming!!