juvenile onset arthritis but no swelling

I am 20 years old and my rheumatologist recently diagnosed me with undifferentiated seronegative arthritis. I have had joint pain for a long time (through childhood) and recently it has suddenly gotten a lot worse very quickly. My blood tests came back with negative rheumatoid factor. I had a bone scan and multiple joints lit up strongly. I also have joint damage to several joints that showed up on an x ray. But what is confusing me is that she said that she couldn't find any swelling, and my physiotherapist said i have hypermobility in my joints. If i have seronegative arthritis shouldn't I have swelling and bad joint mobility? Does this mean my diagnosis is wrong? if so what else could it be?

[Abhijeet Ghosh]

Dear Nico,
You surely have a Juvenile RA.Maybe due to this reason you are having seronagative results.Since you already said that your X-Rays shows up badly destroyed joints, this may be a cause of Hyper-Joint mobility.Joint swelling in not always present in these cases.Only when the Arthritis is flared up, we get joint swelling.
So continue as per the doctor's advice and trust his diagnosis.
Keep us informed and posted.
Regards

[Nico0428]

Thank you so much for answering. Just a further question how come joint swelling is not always present? If I don't swell does this mean the arthritis isn't bad? Or does the severity depend more on pain and damage?

[Abhijeet Ghosh]

Dear Nico,
This sort of arthritis has a spike pattern.It flares up occasionally.Why-As the stimulus for the flare up of arthritis is not dependent.
The larger the time interval between 2 swelling pattern, the better the situation is dear.
Regards.

[Nico0428]

Okay, thank you