High ANA questions

Hi! I am 31 and have never had any major health problems until recently. First in 2010 after my daughter was born I had some joint pain and strange bruise-like spots. I had some blood tests at my ob office and cbc and CRP was normal. I chalked it up to hormones and eventually felt better.
My son was just born in Jan 2013 (7 months ago) and the joint pain started again. My knees hurt at first, but now it's my ankle joints mainly and sometimes my fingers. I get the bruises again. I have slight pitting and onycholytis in my fingernails, tingling/tightness feeling in my left foot and forearm, and I don't seem to be able to lose weight. I weigh the exact same since my son was born...whether or not i eat right and exercise. That could be due to getting older, bc my tsh was normal.

I saw a rheumatologist a few weeks ago and am waiting for my followup appt. All i have now is my lab results and a few emails back and forth with the dr. My mom has MCTD...(scleraderma, raynouds, polymyositis) but is in remission now. She loves this dr.

CBC- normal except MPV being a tiny bit high
ESR - 26 (should be less than 20)
CRP and CK- normal
CMP- normal - Calcium was 10...within range but seemed high to me
Vitamin D - 30 ( i take 5000iu a day due to being low in the past)
HLA-B27 - negative
ANTI CCP - <17
RF-S - 11 (<14)
most concerning to me is the
ANA - 1:640 speckled
ENA - negative ( no values ...all <20)
DNA - negative at 1:20
complement 3 and 4- normal

Also...i was getting over a sinus infection at the time of this bloodwork. Dr says it could have caused higher sed rate.

so...the dr. doesn't seem to be worried at all. He says whatever is going on is very minor and there are no signs of harm to my body. I really don't want medication, as I breastfeed my son. I just have slight pain anyway...
my concern is what does this mean for my future?

Any ideas or similar situations?
Why is my ANA so high alone?
Could it be my thyroid? he didn't check it.

Please help. I am so anxious about all this.

Post Edited (danzergurl00) : 9/11/2013 1:37:11 PM (GMT-6)

Since your mother is now in remission using the same Dr, it seems reasonable to me to wait and see what the Dr says/does at your follow-up appt. That it, it sounds like you have a trust-worthy Dr.

Even if you do have Lupus or another auto-immune disease, symptoms are not the same for any 2 patients...so where you are now really has no bearing on where you might be in the future.

Worry just robs you of time you could be enjoying today, and stresses you out. Stay and enjoy today - tomorrow will be whatever it is and anxiety etc will only make everything seem much worse than it is.

Be well!

I started down this path with a very similar profile. High side ANA with speckled/nucleolar pattern. Sed rate at 20 and high CRP - with remaining labs pretty much normal. I was started on Plaquenil because of severity of symptoms and have now been on it for 4 yrs with a dx of UCTD. I agree with everyone that your rheumy seems to know what he's doing and I wouldn't worry either, at this point. I am 20+ years older than you

However, I noticed you said your calcium was at 10 - which you felt is a bit high. If it stays up and/or rises, I would be sure to ask for a PTH count (parathyroid hormone) when you get your next labs. If your calcium is high, your PTH should be very low (sleeping). I'm just finding out about this - there are correlating symptoms if the PTH/calcium ratio are out of whack (fatigue, muscle and joint pain, etc.) My PTH and calcium were both considered high with most recent labs, and I was referred to endocrinologist to investigate. Still awaiting results. But the endo also said that an infection could affect the calcium level, and I had a UTI at the time of testing.

Parathyroid.com is (over) loaded with info on the subject of hyperparathyroidism. I only mention this because PTH is not something commonly tested, and the problem could be easily missed, though hyperparathyroidism is not common at your age. Best of luck - Lucy