27yr old female 1st rheumy appt was today !

Princessdwarbie

Hi all

I'm a newbie here! I'm a 27 year old female and have 4 children with my
Fiancé (getting married may 2014 yay)

So today I had my first rheumy appt after being reffered by my G.P
having presented red knuckles on my right hand and raised inflammation markers on two occasions.

Let me start off by saying my Mum has R.A & Fibro, my Nan (Mum's Mum) had R.A and my Auntie (Mum's Sister) died from SLE at 36!

I've had pain in my left wrist, top of right foot, back of right hand and also occasional knee aches and stiff hips walking up stairs & in the morning!

To start I had bloods taken for:

ANA - Neg
CRP - Neg
PV - 1.80 (normal upto 1.72)
RF - Neg
Lupus (SLE) Neg thank god!
ESR - Raised

Then had X-rays which showed low to zero damage, inflammation!

So, today at my 1st rheumy appt he checked my knees, hands, wrists & feet etc and said I deffinatly have some kind of arthritis in my hand?!

Reffered me for an ultrasound of my bones/joints and 3 other blood tests (the only one I can remember is CCP)

I now have to see him in 8wks time when the results from the U/S and bloods should be back :S

What do you think will happen if it comes back neg? I don't want arthritis but don't want to be dismissed as its early only to find later on I could've received treatment earlier but didn't!

Thanks

KateRickwood

Hey

I like your mum have RA & fibromyalgia. I had exactly the same! All my tests came back negative!

Like you I had blood tests and an ultrasound, I also had a nerve study done. All of these where negative. I then had an isotope bone scan which showed up the arthritis, there are other tests they can do so they will find it

Best of luck xx

Bydand1980

Hi, I'm another newbie here but unlike you I was daignosed with arthritis at a young age. I've gone through a few years that have been quite stable but had quite a persistant flareup over the last couple of months.

What do you think will happen if it comes back neg? I don't want arthritis but don't want to be dismissed as its early only to find later on I could've received treatment earlier but didn't!

One thing I have noticed though from skimming through a few posts is the number of people who have the pain and stiffness symptoms and sometimes, but not always, the swelling of the joints yet the standard tests come back showing negative. Sometimes I feel as if some doctors don't want to look to deeply if they can dismiss things based on negative results but what I do feel quite strongly is that if you are feeling the symptoms then there is something causing it because you don't get pain and stiffness for no reason. I do actually understand where you come from wanting to know what is causing that even if it means finding out that you have a condition that you wouldn't want in an ideal world but you are totally spot on about being able to treat it properly if you know what it is.

I do think that most decent rheumatologists understand that and will look at different things but if you are faced with a situation where results come back negative and you are not given a definitive answer as to why you are feeling the pain and stiffness and you feel as if you are being dismissed then don't be afriad to ask them what other causes there might be or about other tests they might be able to do to give you an answer as to what's causing it.

Anyway, whatever happens, I hope they can do something for you to help ease things a bit or even find a cure. Wouldn't that be great?!!!