Ultra sound scan

[gwynedd]

Hi all on this glorious sunny day🌻 😁.

I recently had my rheumy appointment, I explained that I wasn't feeling much benefit from the Sulfasalazine. She concluded that as my bloods aren't showing much inflammation that it could be my ligaments/tendons that are hurting. To investigate she booked me to have a n ultrasound scan today, which showed some inflammation in a finger and wrist joint, which is where I'm having pain. As I also have psoriasis do you think this would be enough for me to get a diagnose of psoriatic arthritis? I understand that none of us are medics here but if anyone has had similar experiences I'd be grateful for any opinions. Being undiagnosed is really frustrating 😕

[gwynedd]

Sorry to add to my request but I suppose I'm also asking, is there any other reasons for having inflammation in joints? I've been ill with this for over a year now with no definitive answers as to what's going on.

Thank you all for listening.

[Hidden in reply to gwynedd]

Yes I would have thought Psoriatic Arthritis/ PsA would be pretty high up on your rheumy's list. If not then perhaps you could speak to your GP and they could write to your rheumy and ask about it?

[gwynedd in reply to Hidden]

Hi, thanks for replying twitchy. Would that be the case even though my bloods seem to be within the normal range? crp was 10 last month, but the rhuemy wasn't concerned about that

[minka in reply to gwynedd]

what joints are inflamed can you give more info inflamation hand at joints knees etc

[gwynedd in reply to minka]

Hi Minka, my little fingers and one wrist showed inflammation. But I have pain in several joints, so I'm not sure why that would be

[minka in reply to gwynedd]

like red sores on little finger any knee inflamation or feet

[gwynedd in reply to minka]

The inflammation was seen on the ultrasound scan, my fingers are swollen. No visible signs on my wrist just seen from the ultrasound.

[minka in reply to gwynedd]

yes no visible signs that what they said to me having a good day. the ones in the knees ankles or feet is the ones you want to watch out for like if you start changing the gate of your feet you will probably find u get sore elswhere so watch for that one and seek advise asap.

also be aware of feet burning or tingling is another onset

[Hidden]

I'm not qualified to say. In my experience here some people have relatively low inflammatory markers but they are raised relative to them if you know what I mean? I think the Spondyloarthritis's eg PsA and AS are often much harder to assess by blood markers alone - they are seronegative and this seems to apply to CRP, ESR etc. This is just from what I've gathered here though.

It's very hard not having a name to put to what's going on I know. This is why I use other HU communities more although my diagnosis is RA so far and I'm five years in. I see a new rheumy a week today but not expecting too much. At the end of the day the drugs are very similar for all these rheumatic diseases so I try not to get too hung up on which disease is affecting me. I am unmedicated presently - not out of choice but because of severe drug allergies. This isn't going to change whatever my diagnosis. If you can tolerate the drugs and they help then that's half the battle won whatever the name they attach.

[nad1611]

I know it can be very frustrating not to have a diagnosis, I can say from my own experience that I have never tested positive for RA and rarely have any raised inflammatory markers, but when I had scans on my hands in 2008 because of the pain I was in, I was then diagnosed with Sero Negative Rheumatoid Arthritis on the basis of my scan results. It's likely your GP will receive a report from your Rheumatologist anyway. I also started on Methotrexate on the basis of those scan results, with some good effect.

There is some suggestion that with RA when one joint on one side of your body is affected the other side often is too and this helps set it apart from other types of arthritisis. I think you need to follow this conversation up with your Rheumatologist and ideally you will discuss changing to medication which will help with the inflammation in your hand. Other than injury I don't know why your hand would show inflammation if there isn't an inflammatory process going on. I know it's easy to say but try and keep patient, it's often a long road to diagnosing and a longer one for finding the right treatments. Just try and do as much as you can to improve your health and well being.

[gwynedd in reply to nad1611]

Thank you so much for the reply nad, it really helps to hear other similar stories. I will be patient, I have no other choice 😉, I just hope that I don't have to wait too much longer before I get a diagnosis. I am being prescribed sulf and Naproxen so I doubt it will alter my treatment plan, it would just be a relief to know.

Patience is a virtue! My new mantra 😀