Rheumatoid Arthritis Support Group

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, inflammatory, multisystem, autoimmune disorder. It is a disabling and painful condition which can lead to substantial loss of mobility due to pain and joint destruction. The disease is also systemic in that it often also affects many extra-articular tissues throughout the body including the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, and...

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Lupus anyone?

Indycarr
Indycarr
So the fun continues... So sick and tired of the constant stress!

After seeing a nephrologist because of blood in my urine we confirmed that I have a cyst in my left kidney and that RA is likely the cause of the low levels of blood in my urine. Not overly concerning.

Now the nephrologist thinks I may have lupus so off for more blood work. Testing for anti phospholipid antibody, anti double stranded DNA, anti smith antibody.

Haven't googled them all yet, going to do that now, but any thoughts or advice is welcome.

Thank you... Will it ever get easier?????
bluedogs2
bluedogs2
If you Google, you find all kinds of scary stuff. If you stick with your doctor you can talk with him, ask questions and get answers.

Better to have someone to talk with.

Peace
Bluedogs2
MarkusB
MarkusB
I know how you feel about all the blood work. A necessary evil unfortunately. I am on a first name basis with my phlebotomist. My PCP and Rheumatologist differ in opinion on a Lupus dx. I have a lot of the classic symptoms such as the rash on face along with severe sunlight sensitivity and purple hands / fingers. Of course all of the usual RA symptoms with joint flares, fatigue, heart arrithmya's, etc... PCP dx Lupus and Rheummy doesn't think my bloodwork is quite to the threshold to warrant a diagnosis past Severe RA.

My inflamitory markers were off the chart before treatment and I can truly say my pain was off the chart as well. I started on the big 3 with MTX, Prednisone and Humira as my biologic. All worked well so Dr backed off the steroids and went with every 10 day shots and that seems to be the golden ticket for now as I can now live an 80% life. The other 20% (all the really fun / good stuff) is probably gone forever.

I do have to wonder if the medications and lifestyle changes have suppressed the blood markers for lupus? If they are that would be a good thing. The only thing no one has been able to much with is the butterfly rash burning on my face and extreme sensitivity to sunlight. One Dr will give me something for it and the other doc will take it away because of interaction / usage issues.

All in all Lupus is extremely hard to dx so Dr shy away from it unless every criteria is met and the thresholds have been crossed. Good luck with your journey and I hope you find the golden ticket of what works for you. Take care.
Kimberley97
Kimberley97
I often wonder about myself my grandmother had lupus and an aunt has it I don't have the rash but I do get joint pain a lot without swelling ( I believe that is more classicly lupus than RA ) and have tested neg for fibro over and over again. Also the extreme fatigue fevers and just not well. I was DX Sero neg RA 15 yes ago. And have been treated with meds ever since. I did later have positive ANA but wasn't specific to Lupus my dr said it could be there hiding under the bed so to speak but that they are sister diseases and are treated much the same way lupus is more prone to attack internal organs than RA but routine bloodwork will show them if any of those things begin to take place so I just take it as it comes. Blessings to you try not to stress.