Hi I am Cathy, I am 49 years old, 6 months ago I woke up with swollen joints in my hands, finger, wrist, they were so tight and painful, that same day I got a red rash across my face, chest and arms, kind of like red spots on my chest and arms, but on my face it looks alot like the malor rash shown for lupus, but most of all I felt like I had the flu, the fatigue is the PITS! I waited a couple of weeks to go to the doctor, my rheumatologist I have had for 15 years, have been treated for fibro and osteo arthritis issues, but had been doing really well controling issues and felt great until 6 months ago when all hell broke loose! So I have been on a journey of diagnosis, blood work indicated a high crp level in my blood, but no rheumatoid factor (but I know that does not have to be high to have rheumatoid), also I have an extremely low vitamin D level. So I started at first on plaquenil, an antinflamatory and prednisone. The prednisone helped about 1/2 of the inflamation and pain, but I have trouble with prednisone because it affects my eyes in a negative way, so I can not continue prednisone. So about 3 months into this, getting no better at all, constant pain, fatigue that is devistating, my doc suggest methotrexate, I have been taking it for about 3 months, I am at the highest dose you can take in pill form. Next step he said is the shots. So my question is......has anyone else been diagnosed with only their crp factor elevated??? Also i think that because of my skin rash, there is a possiblity of Lupus, but my doc says as of now my blood is showing more rheumatoid issues than Lupus, I just want to feel better, I am working 12 hours days at work while going thru this journey, very difficult, thank god I only work 3 days a week. Any advice fellow friends?????