I have previously posted about wrist/hand/finger pain. About 8 months into pmr I had horrible left hand pain, no swelling while tapering. X-Ray showed some osteoarthritis and possible cppd arthropathy. My WBC count was very elevated. My PCP sent me to the ER to rule out an infection. There was no infection anywhere. They gave me 60mg medrol in an IV. It hurt so bad I was crying. The IV made it all go away. I had to see a hematologist who decided it was an inflammatory response.
This past spring -4 yrs later, both my hands swelled and were very painful. I was down to 1 or 2 mg prednisone. Xrays showed more advanced arthritic changes and the cppd arthropathy. Rheum said synovitis and inflammatory arthritis. Went back to 10 mg prednisone, hands got better. I'm at 4.5 mg and doing ok. Sometimes I get pains in my hands but I can tell it's the joints in the xrays that are abnormal. I'm soaking my hands in hot/very warm water at night and doing some hand/finger exercises. So far so good. I passed on methotrexate.
My crp was elevated with both hand episodes.