Are doctors hesitant to consider seronegative RA?

I do not currently have a diagnosis. I've had about 5 months of joint pain/swelling affecting the middle joint of all my fingers/thumbs on right and left hands. The pain and swelling came out the blue and initially affected my thumbs and first fingers but soon spread to all my fingers. I have had labs run (CRP, CCP, Sed Rate and Rheumatoid factor) which all have come back normal. An x-ray of my hand shows no abnormalities. I am forty years old and have a family history of RA, both my dad and my paternal grandmother have/had it as well as some sisters with auto-immune diseases. I was first sent to a neurosurgeon because I have cervical issues and have had neck surgery. Initial thought was that it might be my neck causing the problem. EMG studies show nerves from neck are fine but nerves are pinched in carpal tunnel of both hands. Follow up with PCP and now she wants me to see a hand specialist because of my negative labs... At the same time as the knuckle pain I also developed strange bruising under my nails even though I did not injure them and petechia on hands and other areas of my body. Knuckle pain, stiffness and swelling is enough that I am having trouble doing normal things like writing, braiding my hair, opening things. I often hurt the knuckles by accidentally bumping them or twisting my fingers when I am drying my hands... Really need to find an answer and not sure the hand specialist is where I need to be. A good friend who is a doctor feels my picture is very indicative of seronegative RA but I'm not able to get my PCP to consider this or a referral to a Rheumatologist right now.

My family doctor has diagnosed me with seronegative arthritis. He did send me to a rheumatologist who was the one that blew me off - she didn't even examine me let alone run any tests. I went back to my doctor and he is maintaining a seronegative diagnosis while continuing to monitor me. Maybe something will change.

If you can, seek another doctor.

Ask your pcp for a hand and foot mri's, I kept getting the same run around and in 2009 a hand mri showed two nodules...push for a dx, my blood work is usually good too! keep pushing for these and get the mri, if the mri shows nothing then try another route...
Hope this helps and you are not alone, it could also be sjogrens as sjogrens can cause nerve damage...then after the hands and feet mri's find a good RA doctor!
Many well wishes...

Thank you all for your support and responses. Unfortunately, changing my PCP is not an option with my insurance. I can only go to a different PCP in the same clinic and I think I have the best that's available here... I have a really poor surgical history with a neck surgery in 2008, fundoplication surgery in 2010, knee surgery in 2012 and fundoplication redo in 2013. The first three surgeries were a disaster and honestly, I'm scared of surgery now and how poorly I seem to respond to surgical procedures. Not sure if this is due to my fibromyalgia, poor tolerance of meds or a combination of factors. Despite a negative EMG for cervical nerve issues, I know that some of the problem with the tingling in my right thumb/first finger is coming from my neck and the right side is where I had my neck surgery. I can turn my head and get immediate shock sensations. This makes me worried that if I do the wrist surgery, I may still have a significant problem. I expect that the bone spurs in my neck are what is causing the shocking sensation when I move my head. The fact that the surgeon who did my neck surgery didn't remove them is a whole other story... They did order an x-ray of my right hand which showed no abnormalities but my understanding was that sometimes RA won't show on a x-ray until considerable damage has been done? I can't get in to see the hand specialist until the 18th of September. My biggest concern at the moment is if there is long-term damage being done to the joints while we are looking for a label for what is going on. So want to find some answers soon. I appreciate you all wading through this with me and sharing your thoughts.
momscricket, unfortunately I'm in the southwest but I grew up in the northeast and have heard good things about the Lahey clinic from family that still live there. Wish it was an option!

I was just diagnosed with sero-negative RA a few weeks ago. I've had joint pain issues since I was a child, but it was chalked up to growing pains then. I was diagnosed with non specific inflammatory arthritis at 22, and finally got the RA pinpointed at 29. I always had high ESRs and CRPs, but negative ANA, RF, CCPs, and all that jazz. It took a new Rheumatologist to run a Vectra- DA on me to figure out what was wrong. I think it takes a lot of pieces of the puzzle for them to diagnose sero-negative. Especially since you're sticking someone with an autoimmune disease without solid, fool- proof evidence. Keep trying, and if you have to, call around and try to get yourself an appointment without a referral (some places will take non-referral patients). Good luck!