RF ?

Posted , 4 users are following.

Hi there...been following the odd thread as waiting for my appointment with rheumy in May because of ongoning symptoms: painful joints in hands and wrists, occadionally feet, fatigue, fever etc. Ice got vit d deficiency and had what they called araised RF. My RF was 25 so i am but consused as to why they hit the 'raised' marker when others on here are taking sbout RF in the 100's and 200's ! Can anyone enlighten me on R Factor please ?

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2 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi there,

    Your symptoms sound very similar to mine. My first appt with my rheumotologist was a year ago this May.  My first rounds of bloodwork in January showed anemia and not much else, including an RF in the normal range;  this caused my GP to initially dismiss RA. The RF was slightly elevated, as yours is, by my appointment is May with the rheumatologist.  You will be diagnosed according to a point system, points allocated to various symptoms. You can google this and get a much better explanation than I can give, but I will point out that for RF, you will get 0 points for normal RF, 2 points for low positive, and 3 points for high positive. So you still get credit for low positive, haha.  Sorry, gallows humor. Anyway, I have been treated pretty successfully since with Methotrexate;  I'm not back to normal, but feel generally good.  I will tell you that I didn't really appreciate how bad I was feeling until after I received treatment. If I could go back, I would have taken the recommendation of the person making my appointment at the rheumatologist office to talk to my GP if I felt I couldn't wait until May.  If your daily activities are considerably compromised, I would recommend seeing if you can get in sooner.  Best of luck and health to you, hang in there.

  • Posted

    Hello bmelony,

    Not sure why an RF of 25 would be an issue either. If I remember correctly, my intial RF when diagnosed with RA was 225 or 252, or something close to that. 

    Don

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