JUST BEEN FOR MY HAND SCAN AFTER I WAS TAKEN OF MTX 4 WEEKS IN DUE TO SICKNESS THE DR WHO DID THE SCAN TOLD ME THEIR IS NO IMFLAMATION , WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN NOW AS THE PAIN IS STILL AWFUL MY DAS WAS 5.46 AND IM ON NO MEDS NOW UNTILL SOMEONE LOOKS AT THE SCAN ...?? DOES THE SCAN MEAN I DONT HAVE RA ??
I FEEL TOTALLY LOST ..
SHARON..X
I feel your pain. I don't swell... never have been prone to swelling, even when 9mo pregnant. So, the doc looks at my blood work and checks for swelling and says things look good. The problem is that I don't feel good. I'm not sure I'll ever accept never feeling good again.
i know how you feel .! have you had a diagnosis yet ? x
It's one of the (many) things that I hate most about RA...you can have horrible pain and not a lump or bump in sight. I have big problems with my feet, and on most of the toes the last scans just showed a teeny, tiny bit of erosion and miniscule inflammation. So my pain is totally out of proportion to the physical erosion - but doc said that happens..... Make sure you are upfront about the pain etc at next appt. Polly
Hi Sharon....
Don't worry your NOT going mad.. also don't worry about not having any swellings or swollen joints you could be having a remission and signs of the disease have disappeared for now, hopefully for a long time.
Some forms of Spondyloathropies show the signs and symptoms of certain types of arthritis but have no blood makers or not enough symptoms to diagnose one particular type of arthritis this doesn't mean you don't have pain.
I have Zero-negative Spondyloathropies with Enthesitis which causes joint pain and also pain at the ligament, tendon site where they attach to the bone.
No swelling yet very sensitive and painful to touch,
I'm now taking Leflunomide, with 3monthly Kenalog injections and a variety of painkillers/relaxants.
My line of thought is this is one of the worst of the arthritis group for doctors or patients to manage, you can have symptoms of the worst forms of Auto-immune Arthritis's yet you look reasonably fit and well.
Wait until you see your doctor to find out what's what or speak to your GP he may have received a report from the hospital.
Good luck. xxx
Hi Sharon - I'm in the same boat and still awaiting diagnosis. My inflammatory markers have been raised for all the time I've been having symptoms - getting on for a year now - but aren't soaring. I'm not on any medication yet apart from Prednisolone for a brief spell. I rarely get much visible swelling but am getting more now as this disease progresses. Most of the swelling to date has been in my fingers and knuckles and this moves around so I can have a pregnant looking finger with a great big swollen tummy on one side one day and then it disappears leaving only residual stiffness and springs up on another - usually on the other hand!
But that really is about the height of it. I have had the odd swollen hot red knee and swollen ankles which i now always record with my camera as my GP said they are important way of telling my story to the rheumy in 3 weeks time - especially as am bound not to have much to show him on the day!?
The thing is that where I swell is not where I hurt most usually and is invariably at night time so I can't show a doctor anyway. My wrist has been excruciatingly painful more on than off for months now - feels fractured a lot of the time. Both wrists hurt but right wrist is far worse. I can do very little with it and keep it splinted up a lot but there is really no outward sign at all that it is this painful. The physio could tell because I just couldn't begin to bend it and that was on a good day. But my knuckles on the same side are quite swollen and raised looking even though the pain is definitely not as bad in them as in the wrist.
I'm still learning to trust my doctors to believe me.. still keep expecting them to say I'm a fraud but they haven't yet. It is very difficult to convey extreme pain when there's nothing to see but I just hope it shows in my eyes! The fact that the Prednisolone I'm on for 2 weeks has significantly reduced swelling and pain - despite making me bipolar while I'm on it - tells a story for my rheumy apparently. Not sure if everything will come flooding back when I step slowly off it in a week's time but am always hoping for lots of swelling and less pain these days!
Take care and try to keep calm - it's a very slow process for those of us descending slowly into RA or some other type of inflammatory arthritis. As Beth points out it's also very hard for the doctors to identify what we have and how to treat it - but best that they don't rush things because the medicines are all too toxic to want to get wrong.
sorry this will be quick, baby hanging onto me!
Your das score is calculated using results from your bloods showing inflammation and the amount of visible swelling and tender joints, if they gave you that score then there must be evidence of swelling ect, very strange indeed, also was it an ultra sound you had? where they look for the red areas showing inflammation?
There was a previous post from Lyn about DAS, if your type it into the search box at top you'll get more onfo. She did post a link on how to calculate it also which I copied but can't find it now, anyone else have it?
Poor you, what a carry on! 
hi yes it was a ultra sound and the dr was not very nice either made me feel awful without saying anything , wasn't very gentle either .
If it comes up red on the screen their wasnt any???
sharon...x
hope you well today
DAS of 5.46 equals high disease activity
I have read every responce and feel im not alone that some of you have or are having the same problems ,i honestly thought it was just me that its all in my head , i do have swelling but i have far more pain than the swelling if you understand what i mean , everything hurts .!
feels like im on a rollercoaster at the moment and its on a downward slide all the time .
Thankyou for everyones responce i think this web site is reallt great its the place im finding myself turning to when i need a bit of help infor or support so thankyou again ...
sharon ....
p.s hope everyone is well today ...x
RE downward rollercosters - what goes down will surely come up again one day for us in unexpected ways? But i know exactly what you mean and you are most definitely not alone.
At least RA is a recognised disease that doctors acknowledge and try to treat. I can think of many times over the past year where I've dreaded being abandoned and dismissed by the medical profession. Lets face it most of the population know very little about RA so we need our doctors on our side? I mean I know it's not in my head of course - my imagination could never invent anything this awful! But it does feel so important that blood tests, x-rays, scans and visible swelling are all there to tell our tale and we get very scared when we think they are not. Good luck and stay here - everyone's great! TT
Hi everyone, i was reading some of the posts here and it all sounds like me. It took my doctor years to give me a definite RA diagnosis. I have had symptoms for a good 10 years. Now there are days I can hardly move. It is good to know there are other people like me. Thanks for the info. Julier.
Restarting an old biologic? UPDATE 
Am really confused. 
Update ?
Update
