RA Factor Holy Crap !! | Arthritis Information

Saw my reg Dr and he did a series of blood tests. ( feeling like Sh*&^%$ ). He called me and said he had never seen an RA factor of...........1836 ........!!! He is sending bloodwork over to my rheumy. Anybody ever been this high ? Also my cortisol was a little low Hi, WOW! That does seem high to me! I don't know much about what the blood works mean, so I have to look up everything! I've never had one that high, so I did some look up as to what might cause it to go so high. The best explanations I found came from Web MD and they had this to say:

High values

High RF levels may be caused by:

Rheumatoid arthritis. This is the most common reason for a positive rheumatoid factor (RF) level.
Hepatitis C infection.
Other autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), scleroderma, Sjögren's syndrome, and vasculitis.
Infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis, mononucleosis, syphilis, and malaria.
Liver diseases, such as cirrhosis and chronic active hepatitis.
Infection of the heart (endocarditis).
Leukemia.

http://arthritis.webmd.com/rheumatoid-factor-rf

So, it could be an infection of some type or Sjogrens. How long will it be before you get into to see your RD? I have Sjogrens and it messes with me in so many ways, with the severity coming and going, and surprisingly enough, it was fairly difficult to diagnose. I had the symptoms treated long before the diagnosis. Also, probably wouldn't hurt to repeat the test, see if the results were accurate. This seems like it wouldn't be the case because you feel so low in energy. Anyway, I hope this helps and I hope you find out soon exactly what the issue is and are on the track back to feeling better quickly. Please let us know how it goes. Here's a That to me is of the charts, I was 700 give or take a few points at start.Thanks. Looks like very active RA diseaseForgot to add that my Rheumy said that the high number may not indicate the level of activiti. Have a lot of calf pain and mucscle twitching there Well I would faint or have a panic attack myself if I was ever told that. I am glad your RD explained things to you. I certainly hope that it means nothing particuarly bad.
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