Hi Ronie, Thank you so much for writing. The worse thing right now is feeling alone. I have been having joint pain for the last 5 years. It wasn't until 1 1/2yrs ago that i was having stomach problems and told me GP about it. She asked if anything had changed and i told her since i was in pain i had inadvertantly taken 8 ibuprofen one morning and started to feel better. I had just basically started doing it all day long since it helped. She was so upset that she hadn't REALLY been listening to me. I told her i had assumed the pain was coming from age and gaining so much weight in a short amount of time. I thought my body was just protesting. Well, she started me on some tummy pills because she was pretty sure i was destroying the lining of my stomach. She then made me an appointment that day with my rheumatologist. He did all of the blood tests and did see some physical inflammation at the time. Although the blood tests came back without the rh factor? he said my symptoms were very much like RA. The pain mimicked each side. ie. if one wrist hurt the other hurt. Basically he said although he couldn't diagnose me with RA (for insurance purposese) without the factor being present in my blood, he would have to write down "an inflammatory arthritis", we tried 2 different anti inflammatories, the first made me nauseaus and so we started on Meloxicam. A couple months ago, i woke up with pain in my left thumb on Sunday. I ignored it, Monday it started to hurt worse and Tuesday it was double in size with a big knot on the first knuckle. THAT had never happened to me before, i had never had that kind of inflammation and it scared me. He saw me immediately and did more blood work, put me on prednisone. Prednisone i started Wed morning and the pharamcist said to take it before 9 a.m., which i did. After that i didn't sleep until Sunday night! Let's just say i was rotten for work all week. Let alone trying to do computer graphics with one good hand and one that looks a catchers mitt. The lab results came back with really high inflammation but no rheumatoid factor. So, he said that particular flare looked like psoriatic arthritis but there's no patches on me.  We started Methotrexate 6 tablets on Friday night with supper. Well, i went to see him after more blood tests on the Methotrexate and the inflammation was too high and he wanted to give a higher dosage. He said he couldn't do that since my stomach wasn't handling it. Now i've started (this past weekend) taking 3 on Friday night and 3 on Saturday before 24 hrs is up. This has still made me nauseaus but not thrown up. He said that breaking the dosage apart like that didn't help the next step i could try were shots. I guess i messed myself up by not wanting to complain and waiting too long. But, i honestly thought it was due to my weight and not taking care of myself. Now, i don't know if i'm headed in the right direction with this, do i need to try the shots, try a different dr or what. He doesn't want to give me anything for pain, thinks it's "too early to get into that", that was the only thing i did not like. I'm not asking for drugs, but if you see a hand that looks like a catchers mitt wouldn't you think i was in pain?? Especially when you barely touch it and i cry? Thank you Ronie for responding! You are my first shoulder to lean on and it more deeply appreciated than i can ever convey to you. Thank you again. Lisa