Recently diagnosed with inflammatory arthritis

Xeni

hi everybody, I am new to this forum & was recently diagnosed with seronegative inflammatory arthritis. I am waiting for the results of a recent MRI to rule out (or in!) ankylosing spondylitis. I am 47 and have been living with frequent but sporadic pain in both ankles for the best part of 3 years before diagnosis.
I am now on my 4 course of steroids since diagnosis in July and have been taking increasing amounts of methotrexate. I am due to go in to see the nurse in a week to change over to the methotrexate injections.
I am trying to stay hopeful but the ability to move without pain currently feels like a distant dream!
Has anyone else had a similar experience? If so what did they find helpful to reduce the pain and the flare?

Thank you and apologies if I’ve omitted some ‘first-timer’ etiquette!

noddingtonpete

Hello @Xeni and welcome to the Online Community. We are a friendly and supportive group and I hope that will be your experience as well.

I've put a link in below to some people's stories of having seronegative inflammatory arthritis which might be of interest to you.

https://www.versusarthritis.org/search?query=seronegative

I hope that they are of some use and also I would recommend having a look at our website as it contains a lot of useful information, just use the Search function.

Best wishes

Peter

Arciere

hi @Xeni

I’m sorry to hear about your condition and pain. I hope it improves for you soon. I just thought I’d say that it could be worth asking the specialist nurse about other medication options, if your change to methotrexate injections fails to provide adequate improvement. I.e when should you feel a benefit and, if you do not, what’s next and how will you access the next thing? I say this because Methotrexate didn’t work for me, so I moved to Sulfasalazine before moving to Yuflyma. Reading posts on this forum it seems there is a wide range of medication options, so maybe they just need to find the right one for you. Steroids helped me, but I see you are already using these.

Hope this helps. (Oh and whilst a gimmick, I have used a foot water bath thing from Argos to relieve pain. A gimmick like I say, but it provided some warm comfort).

Good luck

frogmorton

Hi @Xeni a quick hello from me too.

Have they ruled out psoriatic arthritis too? I don't know whether MRIs can help with that diagnosis, but the ankle pain just rang a bit of a bell.

Getting on top of the inflammatory type of arthritis can be a bit of a game. The first medication you try doesn't always work it can be trial and error getting there, but I'm sure they will find the right combination in time.

I'm glad you didn't do the usual 'newbie' post as I think a lot of people ignore them to be honest! When it's titled appropriately you get more appropriate replies like you have.

Anyway you take care and keep posting.

Toni

Xeni

Thanks @Arciere I’m 3 weeks into my injections….so far no difference. My steroids finished yesterday & they didn’t really reduce my inflammation. I have a follow up appointment late February, hoping that either the injections miraculously start working or they find an alternative as you have suggested.

Thank you for your suggestion about the foot bath, sounds very nice indeed!

Xeni

Thanks @frogmorton I believe they have ruled out psoriatic arthritis, there has only ever been the suggestion of ankylosis. Although being seronegative I’m a little confused as to how they know this! The results of the MRI have come back with a mostly all clear so no ankylosis to be found…..