Thanks. I will explain to my GP on Monday morning that the consultant first wondered about toxicity and let her decide which tests to run.

I have been really struggling with my jaw and the sweats today and am thinking hard about what was said to me over the weekend. I don't think this is toxicity because I only use embroidery threads now. And although I do often feel as if I've been poisoned by something I suppose this is how an autoimmune disease(s) operate. The heat surges started five years ago or more in my wrists and now the same thing is everywhere and alternates between whole body heat surges and clammy cold sweats and icy feet.

It is much more likely that the doctors were right in believing that, after a long weekend of observing me and checking my bloods daily, the inflammatory process was part of either an unidentified Autoimmune disease or else my rheumatologist was right to think that it's actually part of my RA.

The thing that upset me is that i have no sign these days of synovial swelling and have negative or equivocal autoantibodies and therefore won't qualify for any of the "big gun" drugs ie Biologics or IVIG.

I suppose what I need to ask my neurologist is whether he thinks that this is all a rheumatology matter i.e that the neuropathy is secondary to the inflammatory process of RA flaring, or whether it could actually be an inflammatory neuropathy still? I think he will say it's a rheumatology matter - not neurological.

However I believe I need them to alter the disease activity scoring system for me, to include my nerves, blood vessels and jaw so that I can meet the criteria for further immunesuppressant medication. I think I do probably just have a very systemic type of RA which overlaps with other diseases, causing inflammation in the nerves. But it could be that I actually have inflammation in the joints and just because it's seronegative and there no visible presence of hot swollen joints my rheumatologist is now waiting to see if the RA is causing my jaw problems perhaps before offering me further treatment.