Hi WW1978,

Sorry to hear about your discomfort lately but glad you're here, it's a good resource to turn to! You should get a good amount of solid responses today, there's a lot of "seasoned" RA'ers on here!

I'm not a doctor but being seronegative & negative imagining doesn't mean you won't have RA & typically the Rheumatologist will prescribe the Prednisone to see what your response is. If you get major relief from it then it's something else for him/her to notate because it's job is to relieve pain & reduce inflammation.

If you are diagnosed with RA then immediate & aggressive treatment is typically the norm on a DMARD & or Biologic, although it seems like DMARD is the first step like Methotrexate.

Good luck & check back often for suggestions.

I was sero-negative the first 4 years I had RA, and I know others who have been sero-negative for 20 or more years. That doesn't mean the disease is less serious. Some people choose to take no meds, but if the pain is more than you can bear, you need to start on DMARDs that attack the disease, not just prednisone, which only covers up the symptoms, it does not treat the disease.

I am sure your rheumatologist will not let you stay on prednisone long term. It is really a terrible drug. I just came off another 2 years of being on it, and although it did get me sort of through to a point where we found a combo that worked, the side effects are horrible, and get worse long term.

I have a lot of diseases, too. I take more meds than I care to count! But I would give up all those other drugs, including asthma drugs, rather than my RA meds. I have numerous deformities, and the pain of RA becomes overwhelming.

So do be open to the need to take meds. And my warning, is to not try the herbal "cures" as they just don't work. If they really worked, they would be tested and studied. Researchers really do want to find a cure for this disease.

Welcome to the forum, but not to RA.

Thank you for responding back, and your helpful words. I guess what it boils down to is that I am terrified and processing all the struggles with my health over the last eight years of trying to figure out what the heck was going on in my body.

I don't know what other issues you struggle with in your body, but in my case, there was a cascade effect, once I had asthma. It might have been the allergy shots, or just a natural progression, but I got RA and hypothyroidism at the same time! Followed by Sjogren's Syndrome, and many years after, fibromyalgia. Oh, and mental health issues because of not coping well with the pain and sicknesses!

I hope this is not your case, but sometimes we have to fight for our health, but take no blame for being sick. I was a dedicated vegetarian, worked out, and took care of myself. I was a passenger in a car that was rear ended, getting a bad whiplash which still hurts over30 years later and after that, things went downhill quickly.

Understand not wanting a second opinion, however, it might be worth it for your own peace of mind. RA is a bastard of a disease! I've dealt with it for 35 years. Prednisone is fine short term for flare ups, but should probably be avoided beyond a couple of weeks. Maybe an increase in the methotrexate as well as taking Arthritis Strength Tylenol religiously on a daily basis. I avoid ibuprofen because of blood thinning affects and because I'm a heart patient as well. I wish you well, you are not alone!!

I would advise against Tylenol, because it damages the liver. I was prescribed Tylenol for my whiplash injury for many years before I got RA. When I went to go on mthx, my liver enzymes were already over what they should have been. It has made it difficult for me to use numerous medications for RA, including Humira, and I have been on and off mthx a number of times.

did your doctor say the pred was temporary just to see if it afforded you relief? my doc, at the time of diagnosis, called it like the poor man's diagnosis. the pred was pretty high though. i also feel ra better when I have to have high pred for pneumonia. so high pred is pretty reliable for me in giving me a false cure :)

besides the pred bridge to see if you felt better, what did this current rheumatologist, suggest that he or she would discuss with you as a course of action? there are a lot of folks on here that can't get treatment started when sero negative.

what was your imaging? was it xrays ? or MRI? just curious.

welcome glad you are here. glad you have a spouse and a supportive one to boot! do some reading along with your second opinion, if you decide to go that route. I checked out the local library trove of RA books when diagnosed. knowledge is power. you can bore yourself to death but get informed.

depot

X-rays and MRI of left wrist.

WW1978, this is a giant dose of suck, isn't it? But let's talk about your feelings, which I think we all relate to - this really is a scary and confusing thing.

What I have found helpful is to put boundaries between the disease and my feelings regarding it.

You can't change the disease. You can of course communicate with your doctor, follow the protocol, and work on other parts of your overall health. Of course those are important. What I mean is...........it's there. It's part of you, now. You were dealt these cards. Perfectly okay to get angry and experience various other emotions.

But at the end of the day, you're still holding these cards. So, we look at the part you CAN control, which is your response to the cards.

I find it helpful when I start to get 'wound up' to stop and ask myself "Is this (anger, self-pity, helplessness, frustration, etc) going to do one bit of good here?" Nearly always, the answer is "no". (The exception? Anger can sometimes translate to increased self-care, in my case, and a renewal of my pledge to communicate well, or inspire me to exercise. But that's just me.)

Next question is "Can this (anger, self-pity, etc) harm me?" And the answer is nearly always "yes". There are verifiable links between those negative feelings and measurable health issues. There is a definite line between prolonged (anger, self-pity etc) and relationship issues.

And that leads to the obvious next part, which is what are we going to do about it? The answer will be slightly different for each person, but I think there's some constants.

We accept that we're mortal, and we're living in a body that is fallible. If you didn't get RA, it's not like you'd like forever and have no physical challenges, after all. If helpful, we find comfort in spirituality. Anger and self pity can't stand up to acceptance.

We remind ourselves that every single person on this planet is also mortal, and has issues of some sort. Bitterness fades in the face of compassion.

We do what we need to do. Helplessness withers when you can tell yourself: I've taken my meds. I'm eating a good diet and getting exercise and (meditating, breaking dishes, whatever gets you through the day). I'm informally bartering the skills I still have for the ones I'm losing. (just did some paperwork for a friend in exchange for some heavy lifting.) I'm doing all the things I can and open to learning about more.

My doctor made a comment that some might consider heartless but it really jolted my head into a better place - early in the process she mentioned that I might one day need to inject medications, pretty scary sounding things, and I said "I don't know how I feel about that", Her response was "RA doesn't care how you feel." Bam. Mic drop. Exactly what I needed to hear: these are the cards you've been dealt, and this is the smartest way to play them. This organic hippie farmer is now self-injecting ferocious chemicals into her flabby thighs, because it is the best way to play the hand.

Bottom line is that you reach a point in this, if you're lucky, where you realize that you can work on your feelings, and when you do, the whole card game gets a lot easier to play. Hugs and good luck to you.

Fabulous Katie. Please copy and paste whenever needed in future posts!

Love this: "RA doesn't care how you feel."

Thank you, everyone for your support!

Well turns out my second opinion was a bust. I learned a lot!!! Like the fact
That my rheumatologist is very thorough, and competent. I realized that I am the one person who knows my body the best and that I need to stop letting people tell me otherwise. So I will be starting MTX in about a week, my vectra DA test came back 46 which is low high but still high. I'm not going to let this disease steel anymore of my life. . I know this road will forever be changing but that's life. Thanks for everything I really don't know what I would have done without your support!!

Wow! Interesting comments. Hey, WW1978, I'm glad you got confirmation about you being the person who knows your body best. That is very powerful insigt that comes from being aware of yourself. I know nothing about vectra scores, but I do know about confidence in moving foreward. Best wishes to you.

Second opinions get a bad rap. Getting a second opinion is not saying you've got a bad doctor. Keep going to any doctor that will see you until you can finally nail down what is going on, create your own Medical brain trust. Until then you are blindly treating symptoms and not the disease. Good luck

nixe, I agree with you, but I've found that doctors tend to be very protective of each other, which dilutes my confidence in any affirmation of the primary opinion. I don't know what that means... I guess I'm just saying that I've found that the more I know going into any appointment, the more I can keep a doctor focused. Don't ever let any doctor think they are above you. Make them give an opinion and reasons for it.