What kinds of blood tests for RA have you had specifically? Sorry you have to be here, especially with your other medical problems. It has to be very stressful on your body to be on your feet all day. Hope you have good shoes.

As some of the more expert posters on here will tell you in much more detail than I can, you should use an MRI or Musculoskeletal(?) Ultrasound - not xrays to reveal your early RA erosions and give you a solid diagnosis.

Sorry grandson is reaching for me...gotta goooooooo

Rheumatoid factor shows negative but c reactive protein and esr are always high. Plus my white blood cells are always around 14K indicating chronic inflammation.

Welcome to the group. I'm sorry you have to be here too. We're a soft place to land since we're all going through the same thing and understand. Just about every level of activity from mild to severe, some controlled some not, and some that have had RA for many years and others newly diagnosed, both seropositive & negative. The full monty ;-) There's a lot of knowledgeable, generous and supportive people here. They teach me something everyday.

Are you seeing a rheumatologist? Did they do the anti-CCP test? That one is more definitive for RA regardless of a negative Rf factor. I just found out a few weeks there are two tests for the Rf factor and a newer one than the anti-CCP called the anti-mcv. I just started with a new rheumy who ran the full gamut of labs. But others here have heard of the tests so they've been around I just didn't know about them. Im late to the party again. The anti-mcv is even more sensitive to RA than the anti-CCP. In any event, you should at least have your anti-CCP tested to get a full picture of what's going on. Especially if you're seronegative. The Rf factor can be all over the map. Some people test positive but never have any symptoms and vice versa. Your physical exam and imaging should be relied on as well as the labs. That's my 2 anyway.

And Leah is right regarding the imaging. Sally may pop up to explain the importance of at least having an MRI or MSUS done vs xray. Especially if you already have visible damage. It can take up to 2yrs for erosions to be seen on xray. By then the damage is irreversible. The whole goal of treatment is to keep the erosions to a minimum and keep the disease from progressing ie: controlled. Hence all the wonderful meds that we have to take.

When starting the mtx just keep in mind it can sometimes take several months to build up in your system & start working. The magic number seems to be three but longer for some. It's to slow down the disease progression not so much for pain. With any luck, by slowing the progression that will calm the inflammation which is a primary cause of pain but it doesn't work on pain per se. You may need something for pain as a bridge to carry you over til the meds kick in. Just thought I'd throw that out there. I've been reading in a few places lately that people didn't realize mtx takes time & it's not really meant to treat pain. It's a good drug. I've taken it for several years but I do take a biologic in addition to pain medication to treat my RA and the pain that comes along with it. I also have other issues too so sometimes its hard to tell where one starts and another ends. If you already know all this, just ignore me and I apologize.

Again, welcome. I'm sorry you have other health issues as well. That can't be easy especially working too. I hope you find what you're looking for here and stick around.

Take care,
Emerald

Oh, good, dueling specialists. Medicine has become pretty Balkanized- everyone has their own little fiefdom, and there's often too little understanding of other fields.

Welcome.

Hello and welcome! As you said-sorry that health issues brings you here.
They always say that people in the medical field make the worse patients :)
I would agree wtih the others on having an MRI done...when one test doesn't show what theproblem is..you have another etc etc..till the hidden problem gets found out!