2. Joint stiffness in the mornings
Joint stiffness in the mornings is another common symptom of rheumatism. Stiffness can occur in a couple of the smaller joints, like the fingers, and tends to fade slowly as the day progresses. Morning stiffness is a frequent complaint from people living with rheumatism, however, it is particularly difficult to avoid, given that as the name suggests, it obviously comes from having been lay in bed still all night.
It is also a symptom that many sufferers find receives little sympathy or understanding. The reason for this is fairly obvious. As older people tend to be the ones most acutely affected by rheumatism, it is older people who usually present with the worst symptoms.
Rather unhelpfully for this group of patients, is the fact that old people are more likely to feel joint stiffness in the mornings anyway, with or without rheumatism. It’s one of those symptoms that can be passed off as an excuse or attributed to exaggeration, even when that is most definitely not the case.