Been drs and im a bit confused RE blood test

louisabone
louisabone Member Posts: 17
edited 22. Feb 2012, 12:25 in Living with Arthritis archive
So the first DR said she had sorted a blood test for rhumatic arthritis... so I assumed she wanted it testing for the Rhumatoid factor thing... that would make sense

I went back to the dr today for the blood test and then to see the dr RE painkillers, (now on 60mg codine ) and she said it is arthritic but its either temp or permenant and if its perm they would look at rhumatic and i said yeah ive just had a blood test for that

she said well its not for that as such its to see if its going that way?!?

So anyone know what the hell they are going to do to my blood lol or what they are looking for?!?

They took three vials of it if that helps

Surely the best way to find out would be to test for the R factor?

I wish i could just say im sure my dr knows what they are doing but i dont have that confidence in them (rubbish drs, the only reason im still with is because my children have complicated health issues leaving the surguery and waiting for another surgury to get there records would be not practical esp since my baby needs special milk at £30 a box)

Comments

  • louisabone
    louisabone Member Posts: 17
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    oh over 20 veiws and no answers haha

    if i don't know and you don't know... eeeeeep lol I try and avoid google but i guess im going to have to lol
  • louisabone
    louisabone Member Posts: 17
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Well i had a google and it seems's like it might be full blood count for animea (as it could be a sign)

    C-reactive protein test to see if theres inflamation in the body

    and Erythrocyte sedimentation rate

    those and the R-factor tesint gis the only things listed on the nhs website

    The animea is more commonly present it seems then the R-factory thingy though so im asusming that would be done (animea it says is pressent in 8/10 people the r-factor is 2/3 people (so 3/10ish) and the rfactor thingy doesnt alwyas show early on) lol
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Those of us with the knowledge you require may not be looking in when you post, so please allow a little time for us to get our act together! :) It's been so long since I was diagnosed: for five years no-one believed there was anything wrong, then I had some bloods done over a series of months which led to the general conclusion is was an inflammatory arthritis that was affecting me (but no positive RF so it wasn't RA) then four years after that my skin helped out by producing bits of psoriasis here and there, so PsA it became.

    What sort of inflammatory arthrtitis is happening can be very hard to diagnose, time-consuming too (I'm sure that would have been mentioned somewhere in the answers you have received from us for other posts) and it doesn't all hinge on one blood test. Doctors vary widely in how they set about the diagnostic process and it's also worth remembering that many GPs do not know a great deal about auto-immune arthritises (there are over 200 variations of said beast!) as their remit tends to be OA. Be a patient patient (not easy I know) and I hope you soon begin to get some answers from the medical profession. DD
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
  • resusjan
    resusjan Member Posts: 290
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Hi,

    sorry can't answer your questions - I don't really know what they tested your blood for. Mine firstly did CRP and ESR then went on to do Rheumatoid Factor and Anti CCP after those. Probably something to do with the costs of the test.

    Hope you get some answers soon
  • salamander
    salamander Member Posts: 1,906
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Hi Louisa,

    You can still have RA even if you don't have the rheumatoid factor in your blood and, as resusjan said, they check for inflammation markers. You can have inflammatory arthritis that is short term as well as long term. It's not always that easy to diagnose. It took over six months to get my diagnosis. There is a lot of waiting to see how things go and how things react to treatments too. A lot of the diagnosis goes on how you are feeling too. So bloods not always reflective of how bad you are feeling.

    Best of luck with it all.