Doc (not mine) diagnosing me as not having RA?

[Guest guest]

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.