Comments on: RA|QA Rheumatoid Arthritis Questions & Answers http://www.rheumatoidarthritisguy.com/2009/12/raqa-rheumatoid-arthritis-questions-answers-3/ Adventures of a superhero on his journey through chronic pain and debilitating inflammation Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:54:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: CRK http://www.rheumatoidarthritisguy.com/2009/12/raqa-rheumatoid-arthritis-questions-answers-3/#comment-2039 CRK Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:22:07 +0000 http://www.rheumatoidarthritisguy.com/?p=8951#comment-2039 I agree with Anita. If you have a good personal physician, then you want them to give you a referral to a rheumatologist they trust. There is often coordination between the two and you want a good relationship between your doctors. Your PCP may want to do some initial blood work to check for R factors, sedimentation rates, or other work to rule out potential other causes of your symptoms. Unfortunately, a "quick" diagnosis for RA, can sometimes be much longer than you'd like. If you do have RA, and it's "serum-positive", meaning that you have a positive "R" factor, it's a pretty quick result. However there are all kinds of auto-immune diseases as well as sero-negative types of RA that have similar symptoms. You may never be able to have a "clear" diagnosis. The good news is, the families of drugs that treat RA also are used to treat other immune disorders, so even without a name to your disease, you should be able to start receiving some relief. Good luck to you. I agree with Anita. If you have a good personal physician, then you want them to give you a referral to a rheumatologist they trust. There is often coordination between the two and you want a good relationship between your doctors. Your PCP may want to do some initial blood work to check for R factors, sedimentation rates, or other work to rule out potential other causes of your symptoms. Unfortunately, a “quick” diagnosis for RA, can sometimes be much longer than you’d like. If you do have RA, and it’s “serum-positive”, meaning that you have a positive “R” factor, it’s a pretty quick result. However there are all kinds of auto-immune diseases as well as sero-negative types of RA that have similar symptoms. You may never be able to have a “clear” diagnosis. The good news is, the families of drugs that treat RA also are used to treat other immune disorders, so even without a name to your disease, you should be able to start receiving some relief. Good luck to you.

]]> By: Anita http://www.rheumatoidarthritisguy.com/2009/12/raqa-rheumatoid-arthritis-questions-answers-3/#comment-2038 Anita Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:15:14 +0000 http://www.rheumatoidarthritisguy.com/?p=8951#comment-2038 Call your doctor for an appointment as soon as you can get one and ask for a referral to a rheumatologist. Good luck! Anita Call your doctor for an appointment as soon as you can get one and ask for a referral to a rheumatologist. Good luck!

Anita

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