I was in pain for 6 months before my RA was confirmed. I hope so much that yours is not RA. My blood work was perfect initially because I was seronegative, meaning RA would not show up in my complete blood count at first. By the time it showed in my blood, joints would hurt a lot at night and my right knee was the size of a football and had loads of fluid. Hopefully you don't have any swollen joints? I, too, had to wait 8-12 weeks for an appointment with a rheumatologist. I was living in Germany and that town in which I lived had literally 2 rheumatologists. For the months during which I had these symptoms I was on diclofenac which is non-steroid drug used to relieve pain.

Tkaen, I'm sorry you've had to join our group! But you will find great resources here.

Start a notebook. Think of the wait until your appointment as a science experiment, and you're in the stage of gathering data. As you already know, there's many options for reducing pain - start with one, see if it works, and write down the results, and then try another Track what you eat and your alcohol consumption, because you may find some connections there. It is not the same for everyone

The wait for that appointment is frustrating (consider calling in the morning to ask if they have cancellations; if you live, as I do, in an area that gets bad winter weather, and you're not afraid to drive in it, there may be an opportunity for an earlier appointment.)

But imagine if you could go to that first appointment already knowing that ibuprofen doesn't cut it but CBD oil does, and massage helped a lot but ice packs or cold treatments didn't seem to make a difference - whatever it is that you discover about YOU. This would be good information to have at that first appointment, and it would show your rheumatologist that you're going to be a pro-active patient.

Your instinct will be to protect yourself from pain and stay as motionless as possible, but in most cases gentle movement is really helpful. You can't see the rheumatologist for awhile, but could your general practictioner prescribe some physical therapy? I always thought PT was just for range-of-motion sorts of things, but I've learned that it can be really helpful for pain management.

If, like me, you have specific joints involved that show some physical changes, keeping a weekly photo album can be helpful. I have had my rheumatologist say that my hands look better to her, but I can hand her my phone and tell her to scroll right and she can look at one picture of my fingers a week since my last visit, and see that when I say there's some bad changes that I'm right.

Taking these steps will give you some solid information, and will help you feel more in control of this. There is obviously stress involved in a diagnosis like this, and stress is not helpful when you're already dealing with inflammation in your body.

Good luck to you. This whole thing sucks, but it's manageable.

Excellent advice above, I'll ad to it that for a topical to give some relief is Frankincense, it's available at health food stores (approx $30/bottle). I do not dilute it. It's also a good anxiety reducer (the sky's falling, I'm all alone, nobody understands, etc) if you rub it at the base of the skull. The food consumption thing that works for me is eliminating all nightshades (search"RA + Nightshades"), white potatoes, tomatoes, red and green peppers (hello paprika often disguised on packaging as natural flavors/spices, it's in most sodas), cucumbers, peaches, cashews, eggplant. These things helped me and still do. As said above, we are all different and affected differently.

One more thing you really need to consider is your liver. The stronger meds will make your liver work very hard to handle and process them and if you consume alcohol above a very very low level you'll be stressing the liver big time. Just be aware.

As Katie said, "This whole thing sucks, but it's manageable".

I was sero-negative, too, and it took me 4 years to find a doctor who believed and diagnosed me. During those years, I took Vioxx, Celebrex and prednisone for quite sometime.

It is a hard disease, but life is still worth living. After 22 years, I am still enjoying my life, even if my range of choices has somewhat collapsed.

I would ask not ask for prednisone, as according to my rheumatologist it stays I the system for 6 months to a year, even though it seems like it is not doing anything. Do, see about some NSAIDs to help? And diclofenac 10% cream. I use that daily, even on good meds.

I have seronegative disease as well; however, my ESR and CRP have always been elevated. In the beginning these inflammatory markers kept rising and my GP, who had RA herself, was very aware of the spectrum so I got lucky and saw a rheumatologist within 6 weeks of initial symptoms. It really changed my RA trajectory I think. Have you had your inflammatory markers tested as yet? If not, I would request your GP to test them and if elevates, to test them periodically till you see the rheumatologist as that will also help to see where things are going.

Sometimes a viral illness can leave you with inflammatory arthritis but it will eventually disappear- it can take up to 6 weeks to improve. Do you recall if you had a viral prior to developing pain? In addition, you may want to make note of any other symptoms- eg stiffness and when it comes and how long it lasts etc.

I agree with comments from others about pain management and diet/exercise etc. I didn’t know PT could help here- that was an excellent suggestion!

Also, I’ve been using CBD oils religiously and they’ve been extremely helpful for pain management. A consideration..

Wishing you all the best. Feel better

I would say get on meds right away. I was doing ok just ok when there was a mix up with insurance and I don't have my meds for 2 months and I ended up having to have surgery on my hand. Don't do that to ur self

aleve works pretty well for over the counter stuff. Also have used those SalonPas patches, they help.God luck on your rheumy visit. Just don't freak out about the meds; my sister has it too and has waited 3 years to take the meds and has damage to joints that cannot be rectified. I have been where you are and it is no fun. Just hang in till you talk to he doctor. Good luck kiddo.