Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group
Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem, autoimmune disorder. It is a disabling and painful condition which can lead to substantial loss of mobility due to pain and joint destruction. The disease is also systemic in that it often also affects many extra-articular tissues throughout the body including the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, and...
Yesterday I went back for my second visit for a rheumatologist.
At the first one a few months back, he prescribed a steroid pack to "test" whether or not I had inflammatory arthritis (blood tests have always been negative even though I've had symptoms for years).
The result was amazing! I hadn't even remembered the last time I felt that good. So he then prescribed Plaquenil which I've been taking almost 3 months now. I have had some definite improvement within the past 2 months.
At yesterday's visit he said that I have Fibromyalgia and also "Inflammatory arthritis" - which was diagnosed due to the positive steroid results. The fibromyalgia is obviously a separate issue.
What is confusing is that he told me that because I am sero-negative that means I do not have the type of inflammatory (Rheumatoid?) arthritis which can cause organ involvement.
Sero-negative only produces joint pain.
?
So I guess that means I don't truly have Rheumatoid arthritis.
At the first one a few months back, he prescribed a steroid pack to "test" whether or not I had inflammatory arthritis (blood tests have always been negative even though I've had symptoms for years).
The result was amazing! I hadn't even remembered the last time I felt that good. So he then prescribed Plaquenil which I've been taking almost 3 months now. I have had some definite improvement within the past 2 months.
At yesterday's visit he said that I have Fibromyalgia and also "Inflammatory arthritis" - which was diagnosed due to the positive steroid results. The fibromyalgia is obviously a separate issue.
What is confusing is that he told me that because I am sero-negative that means I do not have the type of inflammatory (Rheumatoid?) arthritis which can cause organ involvement.
Sero-negative only produces joint pain.
?
So I guess that means I don't truly have Rheumatoid arthritis.
I had joint pain, and joint swelling in beginning, and still do. But, with treatment, I am feeling much better (most days).
Rheumatoid Arthritis come in all sorts of combinations.
I had mild symptoms at first. Symptoms and joint involvement progressed as time went by. Maybe a second opinion is warranted.
Your improvement on a steroid pack and on Plaquenil tells me something is brewing. Sometimes these doctors do have to take a wait and see approach - perhaps that is what's going on.
Keep feeling better!
Your rheumy's comments are a bit puzzling. I have psoriatic arthritis, a close cousin of rheumatoid. It is typically seronegative- that's one of the diagnostic criteria- and it definitely can do organ damage. There's another type of inflammatory arthritis associated with Crohn's Disease or ulcerative colitis, either of which does devastating, even fatal, organ damage. Lupus is another one, a little more distantly related, that can attack both joints and organs while giving confusing serological results.
I guess it doesn't matter how I'm labled... as long as I'm getting treated and it doesn't get a lot worse.
Still, it's frustrating to not be able to do the things I used to because of the resulting pain and exhaustion.
That would explain the brain fog though! I kept going back to neurology for the last decade trying to find out what was causing the cognitive/nervous system symptoms.
Dana