Morning hope everyone is well. Just wanted to ask a quick question, does anyone on this forum have sero-negative arthritis and normal bloods? I was diagnosed with sero-negative arthritis in January even though from September 2019 the consultant was unsure what it was and I underwent regular blood tests, ultrasound and MRI and with the swelling and pain I was finally diagnosed with it as well as trochanteric bursitis. I have tried the 3 most common dmards to no effect due to side effects so I started Benepali in April, however in the past 3 weeks my hand, knees, elbows and ankle are so painful that I find it so painful to pick up a cup or even brush my hair. My blood test results have come back normal so I was worried could this pain be because of a flare up and not showing in my bloods as I have no markers? Any advice would be great. Thank you 
Sero-negative arthritis: Morning hope everyone is well... - NRAS
Sero-negative arthritis
You have answered your own questions. I too am s-negative Ms-D and am exactly the same. Don’t try to just ride out the flare . I have in the past and got told off. If it lasts a day or two contact your team you may need steroids tabs or injection. The flaring is a sign of active disease.my flares are normally accompanied with major fatigue .
My gp surgery will not give me a steroid and have a phone consultation on Tuesday with consultant. Im taking co-codamol and amitriptyline but its not working. X
My bloods never show inflammation that i have in my hands.xxx
How do you cope with the pain? I was super happy that Benepali was working but now its not.
I have become used to it and i take plenty pain-killers that i am allowed by the dr. Sometimes it gets too much for me well it often gets too much to be honest, but there you go. Thats the price i am paying because i was taken of all my ra meds apart from hydroxy due to having glass crystals on my lungs.xxx
I was the same - sero negative but very painful hands. I had no grip and had to buy plug pulls to be able to pull electric plugs out of their sockets. My joints aren’t distorted either. My CRP etc are all normal too. The only thing I know from doing private tests to keep an eye on my thyroid is that my ferritin is high and I think that is a sign of inflammation - I haven’t asked a doctor about it though.
They did blood tests to test for thyroid and ferratin too. Just waiting. My liver count is high too so not sure what will happen. Hope you are ok though x
I’m more or less fine now thank you. I think it’s all very difficult if you are needing medical help at the moment. Hopefully you will get somewhere and someone can explain your high liver count soon.
Im sero neg. Fortuately triple therapy and regular pain relief helps me cope. However im in constant pain of varying degrees but im coping. My bloods are pretty good to normal. My rheumy always checks my joints and asks me about pain, inflammation and sometime fatigue as he says ... bloods ok but we know thats not the full picture ...
Hope that helps.
Take care.
My bloods are completely normal. At the height of a crippling flare, there is zero biochemical evidence of anything going on, no indications at all of active arthritis beyond symptoms of sometimes visible swelling and intense pain. As a result, it took me 10 years to get a diagnosis, and I’ve likely had active disease for closer to 20. For people like us, bloods are of no help in determining if we’re flaring, you have to go off symptoms and what’s normal for you. If I had significantly increased pain and/or swelling and/or redness in a joint, or pain/swelling/redness in a new joint, for more than a few days, I’d be contacting rheum to advise them and ask for steroids. Unless you’re lucky and have a really good one that knows you really well, GPs are probably not the best first port of call. Apart from which, rheum need to know what’s going on to manage your treatment plan. Hope that helps.
I’m seronegative. I do have raised inflammatory markers (ESR and CRP) but not always and they don’t always correspond with my symptoms.But isn’t actually that unusual. My rheum says bloods are only part of the picture.
Hi there - as with all the others who have replied, I've been told that bloods can tell a lot but not always. Mine was diagnosed with ultrasound scan on my wrists after negative blood tests. I argued at the time that surely in the absence of positive blood tests it wasn't conclusive but apparently the scans (much more expensive than blood tests) give definitive proof.
When I had the call from rhuematology to tell me my sulfasalzine prescription was on its way I said, all hopefully "Oh, shouldn't I have another blood test first?"
"No." came the reply, "You've had the scan and we can see that you have inflammation."
she went on to explain, as have others on the forum, that just because the signs aren't in the blood, doesn't mean they're not there.
This article explains it better than I am!
Hi everyone. Hope you are all well. My alt levels have gone up to 79 from 34 in March. No idea what will happen now. Take it easy x
can I have info on people with sero negative arthritis for my consultant meeting
Sero Positive RA 
Sero-negative to positive RA factor?
Am really confused. 
