So much joint pain with NO real answers

Hello, I'm new on this forum and I'm hoping that someone can give me some insight or ideas of how to proceed.

I've had joint pain years and was told about 10 or so years ago that it was osteoarthritis, just take Ibuprofen, rest, exercise gently etc. But the pain has increased so significantly that I broke down and went to the first person that I could get into. She is an NP and after I explained my symptoms and showed her my hands with all of the finger nodules, crooked fingers and one seized pinky she feels that I may have RA so she ordered blood work and the RF test came back slightly elevated at 21. Everything else was normal.
She referred me to a rheumatologist (can't get in until the end of June) and to an internal medicine doctor.
The internal medicine doctor ran more tests to confirm RA plus lipid, liver, kidney ,glucose, b12, etc. My sed rate is normal, and the inflammatory tests that they check for RA were also normal (can't remember the name of them) but my cholesterol is high (total 343, triglycerides 213, LDL 234, HDL 61), glucose elevated (101), Liver tests elevated (ALT 82, AST 47) and b12 elevated (1102). The IM doctors office called today to tell me to that she feels that I don't have RA....I hope she is right, but I can't help wondering if she is wrong about it.

I realize...I think, that the elevated levels of these other tests are probably not related to RA but could I still have RA even if all of the inflammatory markers are normal? It seems that my asymmetrical symptoms match... My fingers match on both hands except everything is worse on my left side including knees, hips, feet. I believe it is osteoarthritis in my back because of a back injury 30 years ago so developed bone spurs on my spine as well as a herniated disc. Any thoughts? Can osteoarthritis mimick RA?

Post Edited By Moderator (BadDay) : 3/21/2018 9:51:06 PM (GMT-6)

RA causes erosive arthritis and osteo is degenerative. They should be able to tell the difference on an x ray . Some people can get osteo arthritis that can deform, so it gets confused. Usually with RA you get fatigue and other symptoms.

Sorry you are going through this. Most of us go through a lot before we get a diagnosis with an auto immune disease. It usually involves a lot of frustration for us. I am still not totally convinced I have RA. I am sero negative ( my RF was one below the cut off) and I have some small erosions in my hands. I had a lot of swelling in my hands before I got on plaquenil and prednisone. My feet around my toes also hurt. Usually, it involves smaller joints.

I hope you get some answers and relief soon.

I have had much the same with similar results. I have been reading on a new finding about a protozoan parasite that uses a biofilm to hide in the body. the traditional drugs to reduce inflammation do not help, the test's used to find ra dont find it and some supplements actually help the build the biofilm that cloaks them. I do not know if it will help you at all but it does not hurt to educate yourself on it. Look into Protomyxzoa A doctor Fry is the one I started reading on and allot of what he is doing touches base.