Hi Karen
Sorry to hear you are having such frustrating problems at the moment.
It sounds like it's all conjecture until the blood results come back. I think the first thing is your rheumatologist won't (or shouldn't) just drop you if you don't have RA! They deal with all aspects of rheumatology illness and whatever you have is likely to have some basis in that department.
It's possible you had a DAS done; each of 28 joints (10 each hand, 2 wrist, 2 elbow, 2 shoulder, 2 knee) is checked for tenderness and inflammation and the pain level you mention is included along with a recent ESR. You mention getting the CRP checked, I wonder whether they might have checked the anti-CCP? This would help perhaps with a more conclusive diagnosis.
Often the feet are the first joints to show RA damage so the X-Rays should be a good indicator. Twelve months seems like a long time to try a drug without any follow up. Haven't you seen anyone in that time? Drugs that don't work leaving RA uncontrolled can lead to long term damage so am surprised they seem to be doing so little to help you.
Do you have an appointment to go back to get the results?
Lyn x
