Thanks for responding to the question,
@M.D_Eire, and with such good news! If you were able to write up a short post about your experience for the Success Stories subforum, that would be terrific!
the rheumatologist quietly even agreed with me off the record,
Ironically, considering how I responded to your post back in 2019, I was formally diagnosed a little less than a year later with sudden-onset RA (and late in life, at age 69). I had tried to "treat" it as TMS for two months before realizing that there was no fluctuation in symptoms, only consistently worsening ones - and before I knew it, I was quite crippled in my hands and feet. I couldn't even journal - or open a can of cat food without a special device - and that's when I suddenly thought - holy crap, this ain't right! Finally went to my PCP who ran a few basic labs for inflammation and immediately sent me to Rheumatology, where, after another 14 vials of blood, it was official. I was prescribed a short-term intensive course of prednisone along with methotrexate for the long term.
I was not a happy TMSer by any means, but the prednisone quickly brought significant relief while waiting for the methotrexate to take effect, so I had to accept that there was a serious inflammatory process going on. I also consulted privately with David Schecter MD, a well-known TMS practitioner, who reviewed my medical records and bloodwork. He said that I could certainly assume that the onset resulted from stress and distress (and there was a lot of that) but that I also had to be a good patient and follow my rheumatologist's recommendations, because now that I had a physiological process going on (see my previous reference to Dr Mate!) I was risking permanent joint and cardiac damage if I didn't stop the inflammatory process in its tracks. He also said that remission is entirely possible.
Now, I am not a disciplined individual when it comes to mindfulness, because if I was, well, first of all I don't think I would have developed RA at all. I was incredibly stressed out by a volunteer job that completely changed and became impossibly demanding and took hours of my time as a direct result of the pandemic shutdown, which is a very long story but suffice it to say that my goodism and perfectionism came out in full force, mindfulness went out the door in the face of constant needs to be met and fewer people to meet them, and I believe that my immune system rebelled. I am doing well on a low dose of methotrexate which is the first medication typically tried, and I continue to think that if I had the discipline to establish and maintain a daily meditation practice, that I could achieve remission. The one thing I am better at maintaining is more exercise, and I also cut WAAY back on added sugars. The approach of winter has caused flares the last two years (the days get distressingly short and dark very quickly up here in the upper left-hand corner) but I see that as the TMS aspect of RA, and this year I already have exercise classes in place three days a week, on top of walking and yoga. So we'll see.
Getting back to the original question:
I am currently working with a seronegative RA diagnosis
Now that I know much better what RA is (I barely had any idea back in 2019), to me this fits into the category of so many so-called diagnoses of what are really mindbody conditions - they just string some words together that make it sound like a diagnosis, but all they're really doing is just describing the symptoms. "Looks like RA but as far as we can tell it isn't" is your diagnosis. Which, in our experience, and nicely confirmed by
@M.D_Eire, is TMS. Be thankful that it isn't RA and that you can most likely address it as TMS - that's a win!
For a good description of someone's journey with hand symptoms that were tested (and rejected) as possible RA, and from which she totally recovered, check out this thread, which is actually about the book that our member
@TG957 wrote about her recovery:
https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threads/cts-carpal-tunnel-syndrome-crps-dystonia-raynauds-full-recovery.22242/#post-115344 (CTS(Carpal tunnel syndrome), CRPS, dystonia, Raynaud's - full recovery)
This is where I draw my inspiration (so far lacking in realization
) to mindfully find my way to remission.
Good luck - we've got two free programs here to help you on the road to recovery.
~Jan
