Re: Doc (not mine) diagnosing me as not having RA? Cammi

[Guest guest]

Hi Cammi:

Sounds like your friend does not know much about RA,

if she thinks that loosing weight, exercising, and

taking Vitamin D is going to " cure " it. If it did,

we'd all be skinny, active and buying Vitamin D by the

cases lol.

There is such a thing a seronegative RA factor - this

is a negative RA factor, but that does not necessarily

mean that you do not have RA. Other lab tests, and

physical, e-ray findings will make the diagnosis of

RA.

If you have inflammatory arthritis, this is one of the

things that RA is, inflammation in the joints. The

SED rate measures inflammation, I believe, so if you

are in a flare, or active in your arthritic process,

it would go up. If it goes down, to me, it means the

medication is working on your disease, which is a good

thing.

Methotrexate is supposed to suppress the immune system

which means lowering the amount of white blood cells

our body produces - RA causes us to overproduce and

therefore attack our own connective tissue. Hope I

have that right lol. If you are getting better from

Mtx, then it is working on something in your body

which is causing you to have symptoms of pain and

inflammation, and that could or could not be RA.

Sorry to be vague, but these autoimmune diseases are

sometimes very hard to diagnose as so many cause

practically the same symptoms, and it can be very

frustrating.

The above is what I think is going on - I am not a

doctor - just have had RA now for 8 years myself.

Please if anything I have said above is not accurate,

or a, or anyone else, please chime in.

I am glad that the medication seems to be helping you,

and I hope that it continues to do this. I honestly

don't know if Mtx would work for any type of

inflammatory arthritis, but it is used for RA, and may

also be used for other autoimmune diseases. I can

only go by what has worked for me, after going through

several years of trial and error in meds, is Mtx and

Enbrel, as well as Mobic and Ultracet.

This is just my 2cents worth. Hope it helps.

Kathe in CA

--- cammiesmom4 <betsyg77041@...> wrote:

> What do you guys think of this? I have a friend

> that is a doctor

> that no longer practices medicine. I talked with

> her a bit when I

> was trying to decide whether to change doctors, and

> mentioned to her

> that my sed rate was climbing and was now at 46.

> She told me that

> Methotrexate makes the sed rate RISE. I thought

> that was not true,

> since when I first started on MTX, it went down to

> 21, and then

> started climbing again.

> Today she told me she doesn't believe I have RA,

> that I need to

> exercise, lose weight (I am very obese) and take

> lots of Vitamin D.

> I mentioned that my doc had done mri's of my hands

> and they

> show " scoop erosion " and " tunnel erosion " and had

> raised my dosage

> of the meds to 20 mgs per week, and she said that

> she still didn't

> think I did, just a gut feeling.

> I have not had a positive RA test, but my doc has

> written on my

> chart " inflamatory Arthritis " and says that I have

> the symptons of

> RA, just not the test score.

> Of course, this just FEEDS my denial that I have

> anything wrong with

> me. All I know is that since starting the MTX, I

> have only had one

> flare, can get up in the morning without vicodin and

> basically feel

> pretty good (except toward the time that it's time

> to take my daily

> Mobic).

> So, my question is, if I did NOT have RA, would the

> Methotrexate

> have any effect on me? Could it make me feel better

> without having

> RA?

> Hope everyone is having a non-pain-filled weekend.

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

Kathe

" To ride a horse is to borrow freedom. "

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