Rheumatoid Arthritis

My name is rebecca, and I am still in the "screening" process to get an official diagnosis for RA. I have all the symptoms but my blood comes back fine. My Rheumatologist put me on prednisone 2 weeks ago to see if it helped with inflammation. Well I called him today since the inflammation has gotten worse and he has now taken out the prednisone and naproxen and has me starting a medrol dosepak. He said if that doesn't help in 6 days and if further blood work does not test positive for inflammation, then I might not even have RA. So I am frustrated and want to know if this is normal in the process of diagnosis, and if Prednisone and Medrol work to dramatically reduce inflammation in every RA patient.

Thanks!

Hi Becki, when I first had symptoms, I also had normal blood tests for the first four months or so. My regular MD told me I did not have RA based on blood tests, even though I had really obvious symptoms. So I don't really understand the value always of these tests. I had a normal ESR and CRP in the face of very dramatic inflammation in both of my hands and feet. I did take a course of prednisone which did decrease the inflammation but did not take away the pain. When I went to my rheumatologist, he told me that he didn't need blood test results to diagnose the patient - he diagnosed based on symptoms, not lab results. Some people will never have abnormal labs and they call them sero-negative. Ironically my blood tests did come back high on everything after that appt - even though two weeks earlier I had had another normal ESR result - so I don't know what gives to be honest. In my case, whatever is happening in my body might just show up at a 4-month delay? Regardless, I know that regular MDs are known to misdiagnose patients based on normal blood work, but I hhaven't heard of RDs doing this so much. One would think they knew there were sero-negative RA pts.

What are your symptoms, by the way?

quote:

Originally posted by becki:
My name is rebecca, and I am still in the "screening" process to get an official diagnosis for RA. I have all the symptoms but my blood comes back fine. My Rheumatologist put me on prednisone 2 weeks ago to see if it helped with inflammation. Well I called him today since the inflammation has gotten worse and he has now taken out the prednisone and naproxen and has me starting a medrol dosepak. He said if that doesn't help in 6 days and if further blood work does not test positive for inflammation, then I might not even have RA. So I am frustrated and want to know if this is normal in the process of diagnosis, and if Prednisone and Medrol work to dramatically reduce inflammation in every RA patient.

Thanks!

Hi Becki. My name is Betsy. I was diagnosed with Ra a year ago and I am now on 2 milligrams of prednisone a day and i would have to say that it is working great! alothough i have gained weight but now i exercise a lot so it's getting better. From what i've known Prednisone does dramtically decrease the inflammation. When I had a flare up i went up to five milligrams and when i awoke in the morning i was back to normal. Maybe what you have isn't RA but keep me posted and let me know how you are doing. It's always great to make a new friend.

-Betsy

Becki,

I would say that your Rheumatologist is doing the right things at this point. Unfortunately, it is a tough time during the beginning stages because the doctor is trying to find what drugs will help you. He is going to go through the list of drugs that are known to help RA to see what combinations will work for you. It can be frustrating, because sometimes a drug will work for awhile and the body seems to reject it. Then you have to start another combination. These are usually the steps to getting the inflamation under control and will also help him to believe wether or not you do in fact have RA. They normally do not "start" you on a Bio-drug like Humira, Remicade, Embrel, etc unless you have either a positive for RA or have the signs and symptons of it. So, I know it's hard but be patient and let your doctor work with you during this early process. He will know if your body starts to resist all the beginning drugs and move you further for the more affective drug(bio drugs).

Good Luck and hang in there, eventually your body will let you know what will work. It can get frustrating, but it's the only way to get comfortable