Looking for some positivity

Good evening,

I'm a 29 year old male, slightly overweight, and a bit of an anxious person. I'm suspect for seronegative RA , awaiting further testing with a rheumatologist in the beginning of March.First, I'd just like to share my story; I was outside raking on the first Saturday in November, when several fingers began itching. I went inside, and quickly both hands instantly tightened to the point where it was difficult to actually do anything, and three of my finger pads ballooned up in size. about 3 hours later, it subsided. The next two weeks, I had what I thought was either carpal tunnel, or a case of ulnar nerve entrapment. Quickly thereafter , I noticed my middle knuckles beginning to glow red, and another two weeks after that, the ring finger knuckle, and now the thumb knuckle, and both knees get a bit red and tight as well. I've had varying degrees of tightness in the morning...sometimes it'll be stiff for about 5 minutes, sometimes 20-30 minutes. Never longer, and sometimes not at all. I will randomly get tightness in my hands after work while I'm riding home on the train, though. Pain wise, it's here and there. I work at a desk all day, so the thumbs seem to be the ones with the most, but general rest seems to help at least somewhat. This is where I get a little confused, though...some symptoms are very much RA, while some aren't so much.

Ran most of the possible blood work for this kind of thing, and nothing came back positive. Only thing that popped was very low Vitamin D, and I had some minor signs of inflammation in my blood (17, with a allowable high of 20, I believe).

Now, I'm reading up on RA in general, and it just seems like so many people are suffering through and through. How is everybody here doing? I'd love to hear about folks that are still enjoying life, even with such a terrible disease.

They're definitely very , very tame in comparison to anything i've heard about...another reason I'm somewhat confused about what's going on.

It's a hard call but it sounds like something is going on. RA does usually begin in the small joints of the hands and feet. No one is a cookie cutter case however. Being sero negative is a very difficult thing.
I had a severe presentation that was dx'd as RA despite being seronegative. It was all visual- extreme swelling, red hot joints so hot they sweat, significant weight loss- on & on. However when early aggressive treatment seemed to knock it back- now my RD is wishy washy about what it is I have. I went off DMARDS and did "good" by his standards for several years. I never felt "well" but compared to onset I was a walking miracle.
Had a flare recently with hands behaving like claws, painful- like sprains or when worse like broken hands. I'm on a prednisone trip and have found relief. I begin weaning off next week 1 mg at a time every two weeks if I can tolerate it.....