My mother has had diabetes for many years. She takes insulin every day and takes very good care of herself. Unfortunately, that’s not helping much because she’s developing a whole bunch of complications from her eyes to her kidneys. Her latest one is that she is having trouble straightening out her hands. She was sure it was arthritis, but her doctor said it was something else. I can’t recall the name, but it was something about the joints and he said that a lot of diabetics get it. Would you know what I’m talking about?

It’s very likely that your mother has what is called limited joint mobility or LMJ. This could be mistaken for arthritis if you’re looking at her hands and how she is limited as to how she can bend her fingers. However, this is a different issue. In LMJ, there doesn’t seem to be pain, just the inability to straighten out the fingers as much as before. For example, if someone without LMJ or any joint problems puts their hand palm down flat on a table, their fingers would naturally spread out as the hand goes flat. For someone with LMJ, if they put their hand flat, their fingers won’t spread out and they can’t put their fingers and palm on the table at the same time.