One morning I woke up and my hands were very stiff. I noticed that the small joints of both my 2 hands were very stiff and ached when I would flex my hands. I went to my GP and my GP took blood tests to test me for RA. It came back negative and then she said I had osteoathritis. I am 35 years old.

My middle finger ached so bad if someone tapped it by accident.... it would throb in pain. This all started after I had the flu last August. My hands have hurt since then. I asked the GP if osteoathritis affects both hands simultaneously and she said "yes." I wonder why this happened right after I had a pretty bad flu.

Can anyone shed some light on this for me, does this sound like typical osteoathritis? Does it really happen in both hands at the same time? What do you take for pain?

thank you