My last 2 blood draws were completely normal. I sure can tell you that I am not feeling completely normal. But not as bad as you seem to feel. I had abnormal blood work for a long time and am still being treated. I think you have to prove you are sick so they dont think you are crazy. I went for a long time with Drs and others thinking I was a hypochondriac. It still happens sometimes.

Last week, I knew I was brewing a UTI. Problem is, when I go to the Dr early with those symptoms, He wont treat me or doubts I am getting sick. So, I waited a week, got real sick. The urine was gross and I was given antibiotic and feel better within 24 hours. I wish they believed me when I say it is coming on. But, no.

I will say that my rheumy says that you can feel bad with good blood work but it means your organs are not being destroyed.
I hope you feel better soon.
Mary Ann

As for raw eyelids, that is a problem with me. I think it is blephoritis and occular rosacea. I find washing them with diluted Johnsons Baby shampoo and applying a little steroid cream helps a lot. The steroid cream is not recommended by the manufacturers and you dont want to get it in your eye, but I find it really makes a difference when it is bad.
The dilute baby shampoo (the old fashioned yellow liquid) was recommended by my opthamologist. I just saw him yesterday and he said my lids looked better. You might try my secret, just dont get the cream in your eyes!
Mary Ann

Morning Mary Ann, thank you so much for your answers, it really helped a lot. I hope you have a stunning week further and feel better soon.

My response is almost exactly like Mary Ann's! I always dread going to the doctor when I feel sick, because I feel like they think I'm crazy! Blood tests often come back normal, even though I am MISERABLE! Luckily, I've found a primary care doctor who believes everything I tell her about my symptoms. However, My Rheum just looks at me like I make stuff up and enjoy being sick. I know how frustrating this can be. I have all of the sumptoms you do, minus the rash. Mine is showing up on my arm. I wish you the best of luck and remember You're the only advocate for your health :)

Hello Unicorn,
I am so sorry that your blood test does not show up "the real truth" about your state of health. But the problem with MCTD/Lupus/SLE is, that is rarely shows-up in blood tests when we are in a "smaller" flare-up.
The reason for this is, that our body - due to SLE/Lupus/MCTD - has become very oversensitive over the years - and we can feel very quickly when we go through another flare-up, whereas it does not yet show-up in our blood test-results.
This can be very frustrating and disappointing and we are lucky if we can feel believable about how unwell we really feel at the time, but on the other hand it is very reassuring when the flare-up does not show in our blood-test-results... I can tell from own experiences, that on one occassion "my" SLE/MCTD- flare-up did show up in my blood-test-results and that was an occassion when I was brought to hospital by ambulance and I was in a real complete medical emergency at that time ... Since then I am always very glad when my flare-up does not shop-up in my blood-tests, because that assures me that I am not quite as bad as I feel at the time and this means that I shall recover quickly from this flare-up, because it is "only a small one"... I am aware that what I have just written here may sound very illogical, but that is what SLE/Lupus/MCTD is all about and sometimes it is difficult to "get out heads around this":, because it is so very illogical... and it is a great help if we learn about our own body as much as we possibly can, to try and avoid flare-ups in the future and if another flare-up comes along, we deal with it as best as we can without giving the flare-ups a chance to "get us down"... It is very important to be registered with a doctor/rheumy/specialist, who understands this illogical disease well enough to assist us medically in dealing with it as best as is possible...
Best of luck wishes from Kristina.
P.S. Please let us know how you are getting on...