New and Confused!

Lisaj79

Hi all

In September I suffered pain in my index and middle finger knuckles for a couple of days and then one morning woke to swelling, they disappeared the following day but the pain continued on and off over the space of a couple of months with the pain going into all my finger joints on my right hand with stiffness too, my wrist and sometimes when it got bad, it felt like someone had put a blood pressure cuff on the top of my arm. The pain is now also in my left hand and my toes. I had bloods taken and called for the results a few days ago, the receptionist said my full blood count, ANA, CRP and thyroid were all ok but the doctor wants to speak to me about the result from my Rheumatoid factor.

My question is, if RA is an inflammatory disease and I tested positive for rheumatoid factor, how could the CRP be negative?

Also, I get really cold fingertips lately, is that normal for RA? My knees are also mildly painful and all my finger joints and shoulders sound creaky.

Lisa

[Deleted User]

Hi Lisa and welcome to the Arthritis forums.

So sorry to hear you are experiencing pain in fingers, wrists and now in other joints. Its good that you are already taking action to find out the causes, although blood test results can often be quite confusing.

This page on the Arthritis Care web site may be of help, as it covers a range of tests used in diagnosis, including blood tests:

https://www.arthritiscare.org.uk/do-i-have-arthritis/diagnosis

Cold fingers and creaky joints are all sadly part and parcel of arthritis.

Do keep us up to date with how you are getting on after visiting your doctor.

All best wishes
Brynmor

Lisaj79

Thanks brynmor, I'll keep you posted x

dreamdaisy

There are no straightforward answers to this disease. I have a sero-negative form of auto-immune arthritis (psoriatic but without much of the skin trouble) and my inflammatory markers were always high until the meds got it under control. When we feel well our markers can be very high and when we feel ill they can be too low to measure. There are around three hundred kinds of auto-immune inflammatory conditions, an accurate diagnosis can take some time but the meds used are the same for all. Psoriatic arthritis traditionally begins in the smaller joints of the body, mine chose the left knee to begin its experiments.

By the sounds of things these are still early days for you, more tests may well be needed to establish what exactly is going on. I am soon starting my twenty second year, I was born with auto-immune bothers and that ain't gonna change any time soon, meds or no meds. I hope you get some answers sooner rather than later, please let us know how you get on: we all get it because we've all got it (in one form or another, or both). DD

Lisaj79

Thanks dream daisy, I'm sorry to hear you're suffering too! I feel awful today, my ankles, knees, wrists, hands and feet ache deeply and I have zero energy. I just don't get how it could have come on out of nowhere. I'm.38 and have been.in.surgical menopause since April so wondering if that could have caused.it?

dreamdaisy

Auto-immune troubles can begin at any stage of life, life is a daily health lottery and being a winner for any length of time does nothing to prepare one for losing a draw or two. DD