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Date: 13.12.2012
From: suzanne

Subject: Do I have RA

Okay a bit about my history, unfortunatly like alot of people I have many conditions, but I will only list one I think might be relevant. I have been diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, Cervial spondylosis, arthritis spine, ME, IBS, raynauds to name but a few. So I had always had swelling on my knuckles in my right hand after repetetive use i.e using scissors pinting etc but the swelling would go down.

In April this year the swelling in my right had was there on waking, and starting to affect my sleep, the swelling is minimal but enough to really hurt espeically if i feel the sides of the knuckles, i took a week of steriods as nothing else was helping, the pain and swelling subsided but started again when i finished the steroids, i took another week of them and again the pain and swelling deminished, getting a bit worried i went to see the gp and i said he thought i might be getting inflamatory arthritis and sent me for a hand xray. In the mean time the following week i began to get alot of pain in my feet to the extent i would sit with my feet on their sides as they were too painful to place flat on the floor, they would feel llike i had been standing on them all day even when I got out of bed. Over the next few weeks other joints started to take it in turn to hurt, knees for three days, then shoulders, it was like they were all having a turn and the main difference i got with this pain than what i had had with my other conditions was that what ever joint hurt it would be paralell with the other side. Finally my gp referred me to the Rheumatologist. My hand xrays came back ok, my bloods were normal, though in the past they had been weakly positive scl70 but i didnt have any clinical signs then. The rheumatologist examined me apart from my shoulders and told me he didnt think i had RA, when I asked him if i should continue taking the meds the gp started me on i.e meloxicam he said he would leave it up to me, I came out there fuming that he gat me nothing and just sent me away. Everyone I have spoken to with this condition have all said the same thing they felt i had all the signs. I am going back to see hime tomorrow, ho can i get him to atleast comit to helping me find out exactly what is going on? He offered me no further xrays to at least see if any of my other conditions got worse, he did my vitamin d in bloods even though i had been used a SAD light twice a day for the month prior? Please help anyone need some ammo
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Date: 14.12.2012
From: Colin

Subject: Re: Do I have RA

Hi suzanne

not sure whats going on with your joints , but there is several blood test they can do to check for inflammation in your joints , a good NSAID like naproxen should help it without using steriods

with FM/ME you get joint pain but not swelling so think its one of the arthritis but there are about 200 different ones . The vitamin D sort of goes with RA so that may be the reason he checked it

hope you feel better soon
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Date: 14.12.2012
From: suzanne

Subject: Re: Do I have RA

Hi Colin, i had all the inflammatory bloods done as usual but my understanding is that these bloods are not always positive for someone to have RA, alot of my patients I have seen with this condition half have never had any positive bloods but have had paralell joint pain and swelling oters i have seen have had no pain or swelling but have positive bloods. The difference i noticed with the joint pain i was getting is that it was mimicing on both sides which i have never had with any of my current diagnosises and the pain in the feet even on waking again never had that with anything else. Sorry for any spelling mistakes.
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Date: 14.12.2012
From: Colin

Subject: Re: Do I have RA

hi suzanne
its called Rheumatoid factor (RF) , most people (80%) with RA have it but 20% are seronegative , having RF in your bloods dont always mean someone has RA

the test they do to check inflammatory in bloods are CRP & ESR http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Blood-Test-Detecting-Inflammation.htm

with RA , joint problems can be symmetrical in rheumatoid arthritis but not always , when I first had RA the bloods showed RF & my GP said RA but took my rheumatoligist two years to confirm it

hope they can help you soon
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Date: 15.12.2012
From: bsk

Subject: Re: Do I have RA

Hi Suzanne, how did you get on yesterday?

Have you checked out some of the arthritis website? There is a lot of information on them which might help. There are something like 200 different types of arthritis and it is not always easy to diagnose.

My experience of getting RA is, although I am negative for RF my ESR and CRP were raised, this is what alerted my GP. Even though I was in a lot of pain at the time, it was the bloods that really helped them to see how ill I was. Also, my pain doesn't flit around, it's fairly consistently the same joints and there is visible swelling in most of them. I was completely disabled by it until they got me on the drugs. Not everyone is the same which does make it hard to diagnose.

X-rays aren't necessarily helpful in diagnosing RA as they only show up joint damage not inflammation. I had them to check whether i had osteoarthritis and joint damage but they were fine.

I do hope you haven't got RA as it is not a nice disease to have! Let us know how you get on.
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