Posted 9/30/2011 1:18 AM (GMT 0)
Hi all, I'm not new here, I've just been gone for a while. I have a kind of long story and some questions, but just bear with me. I have fibromyalgia to start with. A few years ago, my rheumy dx'ed me with RA due to the symptoms I was having- severe joint pain & some swelling, but my tests were always negative. She said I had mild RA and put me on Plaquenil. I also have had hypothyroidism for about 10 years now and I take Levoxyl for that. I decided to stop seeing this doc because for one thing, she didn't accept my insurance, so an office copay was like $160.00. And I would go in and tell her I was in pain and that I had slowly been watching my fingers become deformed over several months and she said, "Everyone's fingers become bent as the get older". Mind you, I was only 40 at the time! She tried to get me to take an expensive homeopathic supplement "that is hard to get and may or may not work" and I said no. I felt like she was undertreating me. That was another reason I left.
Anyway, I found a new rheumatologist but it I wasn't able to get an appointment with her for like 3 months. In the meantime, my Lyrica and Plaquenil prescriptions ran out and my old rheumy wouldn't refill them. I went for about 3 weeks before I realized that my regular GP could write me a script to get me through until the next appointment. I decided to stay off of Lyrica because I didn't feel that much different, but once I went back on the Plaquenil, I felt a lot better. While going back on the Plaquenil, it made me horribly nauseous for several weeks and I had trouble swallowing my other pills, especially my thyroid, so I wasn't getting the proper dose for over a month.
Finally see the new doc and she does all these detailed tests that show I have no inflammation or anything positive for RA. I do, however, have Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. I get xrays of my hands done and she says there is no signs of arthritis. She thinks that my joint pain is caused by the Hashi's, because thyroid can mimic arthritis pain. She refuses to give me any other meds to treat my arthritis. She wants me to see an endocronologist.
So off i go to the endo, and she wants me to get an ultrasound because I could have a goiter. She disagrees with the rheumy, said that I probably always had Hashi's but the meds I took kept it within normal limits, and then stopping caused the Hashi's to show up. She said that yes, Hashi's can mimic joint pain, but not swelling, and that all the time I was complaining of joint pain, my thyroid tests were normal. No, I don't have a goiter but I do have a couple small nodules. Whew!
Now I am looking for a new rheumatologist, because her office has this endless tape message on that says "We are having a high call volume, please leave a message" and I called them for a month to get some test results, and finally, after I left a threatening message that said, "If I do not hear from your office within 48 hours I want copies of my records and I will go somewhere else". Then they called me back!
So here is my question: if you are seronegative, does your RA show up in your joints? Does it show up on x-ray or only on MRI or something else? My hands hurt a lot, more in the winter time, but my elbows and knees have been bothering me too. How do you get the doctor to order a full-body scan? I feel like I keep telling these docs that I am having pain in all these different joints and they never listen! I have osteoarthritis in my neck and mild scoliosis in my lower back and mild osteo in my right hip.
How did your doc some to the conclusion that you were seronegative? Thanks for reading!