Have you had x-rays, scans, MRI's or a scintigraphy done? I presume you will have had some of them done.

I've had them all and over the years more and more arthritis, tendon, nerve and ligament damage seem to be working their way into all my large and small joints. From, originally, the one shoulder to then the other with nerve impingement and rotator cuff damage and a fully torn tendon in the right shoulder. From there over time my elbows, wrists, fingers (especially the base of both thumbs caused by arthritis in both of them), knees, feet and toes are all affected. I've had multiple cortisone injections in my knees, shoulders and wrists and plasma injections in my knees. If I wasn't in my early seventies I'd probably have had knee replacements by now but I'm told, at my age, the recovery process would too long. The same reason for not doing surgery on my shoulders. They say they can't replace everything so physio, meds and braces where necessary are my only options.

So, yes, I too have had numbness, tingling fingers and toes. If I keep my hands in an elevated position, like reading a book, they start to tingle and go numb. A few months ago, in bed, I was having several nights where my whole right hand was completely dead from below my wrist to the ends of my fingers. I started having to use wrist braces on both wrists and even braces on my fingers. I tore a tendon once in one of my fingers just tearing open a plastic bag. Every innocuous thing I did seemed to damage me in some way.

When all this came to a crescendo of awful, full-body, pain and damage and sudden swelling in both wrists and both feet is about the time I was diagnosed with PMR thanks to a set of blood tests that showed CRP at 178 and a load of other blood markers that were way too high or too low. I'd never had blood markers like that before and I've had a lot of blood tests.

After starting on prednisone at 6mg, 90% of the swelling and pain went away. My knees were less painful and so were wrists, fingers and thumbs. Now I'm down to 8mg of prednisone those pains are retuning. The numbness and tingling remains because of nerve impingement.

Apart from xrays, MRI's and scars, the level of inflammation in many parts of my body only really opened my eyes to my problems once I had a full-body scintigraphy done. I've been saying for years that I have odd feelings and discomfort everywhere in my body but was told it was in my imagination. The scintigraphy proved my point. But arthritis and tendon damage has played a big part in my numbness and tingling (neuropathy).