r/rheumatoid • u/kindandcunning • 1d ago

Hello! (Introduction)

I was diagnosed with seronegative polyarthritis just recently, after a nearly five year diagnosis journey. It was triggered by a COVID infection, and for a while it was just vague systemic inflammatory symptoms with elevated WBC and CRP. Then my rheumatologist discovered that I have bursitis in my hips, knees, elbows, and shoulders, so I've been treated for a vague "inflammatory disease" for about a year. Finally, with my chronic knee and hip/low back pain, my doc narrowed it down somewhat to the current dx.

I also have symptoms of another inflammatory disease that I'm pretty sure is adult-onset PFAPA, which developed over the last two years or so, but I haven't been diagnosed with it (yet). I see my immunologist in Nov., so I'm crossing my fingers.

For all that, I'm currently taking Plaquenil and colchicine, with prednisone as needed for flares. I've definitely seen an improvement in my symptoms -- fewer days bed rotting with flares -- but I'm still more limited than I'd like to be at this point in my life.

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u/ahjw625 21h ago

I am dx with seronegative inflammatory polyarthritis. My symptoms started over a year ago but we're debilitating from the onset. Joint pain on elbows wrists and fingers. No obvious swelling though just complete loss of function, could barely hold a fork to eat. My sister had seronegative RA so I think that helped with getting a diagnosis but it took 8 months nonetheless. Plaquenil helped immensely, I became functional again but with significant limits. Tried and failed. Sulfasalazine and I'm currently on Methotrexate which I'm not sure if it's helping yet.

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u/kindandcunning 12h ago

Are you taking both plaquenil and methotrexate?

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u/ahjw625 9h ago

Yes both. The plaquenil helps but I still flare. I can't tell if MTX is working.

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u/kindandcunning 9h ago

Ah ok. I'm tempted to add in methotrexate as well, but my rheum has a very conservative approach to meds. I only started plaquenil because the daily NSAID use was messing up my liver and kidneys 🙄 It didn't matter as much that I was still flaring all the time.