Upon awaking, my hands are stiff and swollen. I experience extreme pain in my hands. Although, the pain and stiffness is in both hands; most of the pain is on the skin of the knuckles. I have round red, puffed-up pockets swelling on the knuckle joints. The round swollen red pockets are kind of hard and extremely painful when I bend my fingers and when I touch them. Now this occurs, the stiff, swollen, painful hands and finger joints as soon as I wake up. The hands stop hurting, the stiff hands become much less painful within minutes after getting up, but the swollen round red bumps on the knuckles remain throughout the day.