Seems to be the mantra of all of us who have autoimmune problems. When I die, I want to put the old quote on my tombstone, "I told you I was sick." It is really frustrating to have to deal with having an illness and not being taken seriously. I have been a hypochondriac, had MCTD, had lupus, had fibro, had sjogrens, and now have undesignated connective tissue disease in remission. Sheesh!
Mary Ann

Yes, I'm beginning to think they would prefer to say someone is a hypochondriac than acknowledge they could be wrong. When my primary care doctor of 5+ years finally acknowledged to me last year that he hadn't believed me and apologized I was floored. It was because I had been steadily going up in weight, had hypertension, edema, plus all the muscle and joint pains and 5 blood pressure meds and med for edema daily were not helping. He finally said let's consider PCOS because aldosterone can cause your kidneys to think your body needs more fluid and go into overdrive which can cause hypertension and edema. Within 3 says of being on spironolactone and my bp meds, my bp tanked to like 85/50. I slowly withdrew all other meds and was just on spironolactone and my bp has pretty much stayed at 120/80 except when in extreme pain or stress. When my Dr saw this, it is when he apologized. He thought I had lied about cutting calories, etc. and thought I was eating excessively. My work environment had me on move a lot (walking 5 miles or more) every day and I was gaining weight. The spironolactone helped the hypertension, but not joint and muscle pain, or dry eyes/mouth, or lung and esophagus problems.

Hi-I do not know your situation but am wondering if your insurance requires a referral to see a specialist? I would check into it and if they don't I would recommend going to a rheumatologist. They will dig deep and do the necessary bloodwork needed to determine what is going on.

Hi Sunshine75,
I currently have a primary care doctor, rheumatologist, pulmonologist, wound care doctor and few others. My primary was the one who ordered the bloodwork that showed the autoimmune stuff and sent me to the rheumatologist who did more detailed bloodwork and diagnosed me with MCTD. I like the doctors that I have had recently, but was frustrated by my primary care doctor's comment on Monday. I guess it just shows that even when presented with lots of facts/data doctors can still have a hard time accepting it.

Almost feel like the patient has to be a lawyer and argue the case.

If at all possible, keeping digging and researching and seeing drs until you get some resolution. I started this journey at age 22, the year after I married and the first thing my dr said was...the pain is caused by problems adjusting to married life, ugh!!! Then I was diagnosed with a pulled muscle, then after many blood tests it was ankylosing spondylitis for about 25 years just because I was positive for HLA-B27 gene. Then after a major flare at age 58, xrays that showed no signs of spinal fusion, and positive ANA and RNP, I was diagnosed with MCTD with mild symptoms of lupus and fibromyalgia. It's such a long process but try not to get discouraged. Hang in there and know that we understand and will try our best to offer encouragement and support.

Thank you Jackmaraner. I am pursuing all possibilities and have appointments at the Mayo Clinic this Thursday. In looking back through my medical notes from 2012 and 2015 when I previously went there to figure out blood pressure and vertigo issues, I see that some of their bloodwork showed ENA very high, ANA and RNP. Plus they mentioned a few other possibilities. But they said go on mediterranean diet, lose weight, exercise and meditate. So I will see what they say now that I have all this extra information.