RA?

[Guest guest]

Hello. My family physician suspects that I might have RA. She

referred me to a rheumatologist and my first appt. is in a few weeks.

Here's a quick history of my symptoms: Pain in one of my calves in

November (no injury) that was worse when lying or sitting. At that

time I thought it might be a blood clot, some sort of vascular

problem, etc. My family phys. ruled out a blood clot or other such

issues and suspected a muscle strain. Then the pain spread to my knee,

hip and ankle of that leg. Finally it was bad enough one day that I

was limping half the day and much of the next week. My family phys.

did blood work to test for RF, sed. rate and another one I cannot

remember. She said the results came back negative. She prescribed a

Medrol dose-pak a couple of weeks ago which made the symptoms

practically disappear. The joint pain is back and I now suspect that

my other knee is beginning to hurt. I'm in my early 30s, my family

phys. said she doesn't suspect osteoarthritis, and referred me to a

rheumatologist.

Alright, now that I got all of that out of the way. . . I'm wondering

if anyone has experience with RA beginning with so few " common " RA

symptoms? In other words, I have no stiffness, swelling, redness or

warmth in the affected joints. I don't have any of the other common

symptoms (except perhaps some minor fatigue). I realize that all of

these symptoms could be coming if I have RA, and it is possible to

have RA without positive blood tests. I won't know for sure until I

see the rheumatologist, but I'm impatient and trying to find out as

much as I can now. :-) Thanks.