RF, RA, Rayos & Pain

[Jojosteeler]

I had a great first visit with my rheumatologist this week. She was validating and knowledgeable and respectful. She is also pretty confident I have RA (tons of tests ordered and I go back in a couple of weeks).

Two things:

(1) my original labs that got me referred to a rheumatologist showed a rheumatoid factor of 191. My labs this week showed my RF as 33. Can it drop that far in a couple of months? And

(2) the rheumatologist gave me a sample of Rayos (low dose prednisone) to try before my follow up. The horrible stiffness and diffuse pain / achiness is all but gone (yay!!), however I have an INCREASE in specifically painful areas. My knee hurts enough to wake me up at night, etc.

Any experience with low dose prednisone and increased pain?

[Deeb1764]

RF can go up and down as it depends on so many factors I dropped by at least 100plus from first test and 6 weeks later test,

Pred- it works in mysterious ways so the devil drug for many of us as it masks RA issues but gives relief when most needed at the start when you are awaiting medication for RA and the usual 13 weeks to see if new meds work. For me I found that I felt my OA in my knees so much more when the pred helped the RA so I am not too sure if you have OA but maybe this could be a factor.

Keep a diary of what is working and what is not or other things as keeping track of it all is hard going.