HealingWell
Search Close Search
☰

Lupus and Mood Swings

Support Forums
>
Lupus
Could I have lupus?
no - 0.0% - 0 votes
yes - 40.0% - 2 votes
maybe - 60.0% - 3 votes
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply
❬ ❬ Previous Thread |Next Thread ❭ ❭
Posted 5/1/2007 12:05 AM (GMT 0)
Hi. I am 31 years old I am concerned that I may have lupus. At the end of 2004, I was at work when my vision went blurry. I know that it happens when you start daydreaming but I couldn't get my focus back for several minutes. I went to the doctor and they ran a bunch of tests. I had a positive ANA test. I then saw a rheumatologist who ruled out MS and rheumatic fever but said it was too soon to rule out lupus.

So, here it is 2007. Before I went to the doctor in '04, I had been fighting fatigue hardcore. My energy was fading and I couldn't understand why. I was becoming cranky, moody and sensitive. I would get rest, exercise and had a pretty healthy diet but there was still no improvement so I just adjusted to living like that....so I thought.

I was having lower left ab pain at the beginning of this year so I had a colonoscopy. I just went to the doctor to get the results. My colon is great but I have and ANA result of 1:40 and there was something going on with my blood as well. I AM SCARED AND CONCERNED. I have an appointment tomorrow morning with my primary care physician tomorrow morning.

For those of you living with lupus, is there any test I should request? Oh yeah..besides the vision, fatigue and lately severe moodiness, my hands have throbbing pain sometimes for no reason at all. I didn't put this all together until today. Help!!!

SuperGirl413
Posted 5/1/2007 12:33 AM (GMT 0)
Hi SuperGirl and welcome. I'm sorry to hear about your health problems and that you don't have any answers yet. Lupus can be a very tricky disease to diagnose and unfortunately it can take years to get an accurate diagnosis. I had a similar experience as yours when I first got sick with some general and vague symptoms and had a positive ANA, that was on the low side. Over time I got sicker and sicker and developed more and more lupus symptoms and had more positive labs come back and just last summer I finally got a diagnosis. There are several other more specific tests the doctor can do that may indicate possible lupus - I don't know all of them specifically but the doctor should know. Once you have a positive ANA, the doctor should follow up with some of the more specific labs. There is no single lab the tells you that you definitely have lupus - but there are several labs that make it more likely. Also a positive ANA is present in several autoimmune diseases, not just lupus, so your doctor could also look into some of those. You can click on the clickable links in my signature and you can look at the diagnostic criteria for lupus as well as a list of lupus symptoms. Making a detailed list for your doctor can also be helpful and like you said, sometimes it helps both you and the doctor put the pieces of the puzzle together. Lupus can be a slow progressing disease and it casn take years for it to fully manifest itself. Please feel free to ask any other questions you have - we'll do our best to answer them. We are also here for support if you are frustrated or having a hard time. Keep us updated on what happens at your appointment tomorrow. Take care and I'm glad you joined.
Posted 5/1/2007 1:04 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you for your reply and resources.
Posted 5/1/2007 3:18 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Supergirl,

   Welcome to the forum. I'm also sorry to hear you are having these problems. Hippi had some great advice for you.

   As far as tests, I think the main tests doctors will run to check for lupus involvement or rule out other things would be some of the following:

   Anti-DNA single stranded and double stranded, Anti-sm, Anti-ro, cbc, cmp, crp, t3, t4, tsh, sedrate, Anti-SSA, Anti-SSB, and anticardiolipin antibodies. If I have missed any someone will come along soon to add them.

   I hope you get some answers soon and start feeling better. Please keep us updated and take care. You will be in my thoughts and prayers.

                                                                     Babs

Posted 5/1/2007 3:53 AM (GMT 0)
Supergirl, hello & welcome. You have been given some good info. I am very new to lupus only being dx'ed 2-half mo's ago. I also have ana titer of 1:40. Dr's do not consider that to be lupus but not all people with lupus have positive ana. I have all your symptoms plus more. I have tumid lupus which is very rare they also suspect sle, the only way they dx'ed it was by a skin biospy. Watch for a rash on your body, if one developes go to dermatologist & ask them to biospy it. I hope you get some answers soon, hopefully you've just been run down.
Posted 5/1/2007 5:46 PM (GMT 0)
This is SuperGirl. I just came home from the doctor. First of all, I have Kaiser and my primary care physician is no longer with Kaiser so it was a new doctor.

I talked to her about the way I have been feeling and showed her my previous blood test results. I also told her about what happend in '04 and all of the tests I went through. She said that my ANA is probably just normal at 1:40. She told me that at that level, 1 in 3 people have a false positive.

My ESR is was also low. It was two. She order some tests to see if my body could be not making enough RBCs or destroying them. I am anemic so that could account for the low number. She told me that this number would be elevated if I had an autoimmune disease.

I just want to feel better. I looked at the patterns of all the ladies that have written me back and others as well. I see that they had similar health issues prior to the diagnosis. I had mononucleosis at the age of 12 and 16, diagnosed with Raynaud's around 15, inexplainable lower abdominal pain and just all around general fatigue for several years. I want to know what's going on so I know how to handle it. It's frustrating not knowing...more so than it would be knowing. At least I would have the benefit of knowing how to treat it.

Is anyone's story similar? How many years passed before you were diagnosed? Were you getting similar comments from physicians?
Posted 5/1/2007 5:57 PM (GMT 0)
You having mono is interesting. I had a bad case of mono when I was 18 and was never the same after that. I never totally got my energy back and went through periods of pretty bad fatigue and got sick often. I think we did a poll on here at one time about how many people had mono prior to having lupus and it was a pretty high number of people. I'm confused about what your doctor said about being anemic - did she mean that people with lupus do not usually have low iron? If I remember right, anemia is pretty common in people with lupus. Raynaud's is also a disease that can go hand in hand with lupus - a lot of us have it as a secondary condition, There's no way I can say whether you have lupus or not, and if you do, it may just be taking a long time to manifest itself and show up in your labs. I was also thinking about what she said about the 1:40 ANA. If 1 in 3 is a false positive, then 2 out of 3 are truly positive. Just hang in there and try to be patient. I know it is hard and very frustrating. It may be a long time before you get a diagnosis, so in the meantime I hope a doctor will be willing to try to treat your symptoms and help you feel better. Your doctor sounds like she is pretty thorough. Take care and don't give up looking for answers.
Posted 5/1/2007 8:47 PM (GMT 0)

Hi Supergirl

don't give up and try not to get frustrated. my symptoms started with joint pain, rash and anemia. it took a couple of months to get a diagnosis but i had a really good primary care doc. didn't like my first rheum so i switched and now have a very proactive one. due back at the end of the month for my yearly follow up. was doing really well, in remission for almost a year now feel like a flare my be coming on. the discoid rash is starting on my scalp (that was my first symptom before i was dx'd), sleep pattern is all messed up and my mood swings are almost intolerable. Is there anyone else out there that has neurologic symptoms in the form of depression, anxiety, irritability etc.? it is very frightening because i get so depressed and frustrated i sometimes feel suicidal, although i know i would never do anything to hurt myself. just want to stay in bed and hide from the world. I asked my doctor once if these symptoms could be related to the lupus (acutually it was the nurse and she said no) but i just rec'd a pamphlet from my local lupus foundation that reports all kinds of emotional and psychological symptoms related to lupus. I am wondering if this could be part of a flare.

any info would be greatly appreciated. thanks

Posted 5/2/2007 1:34 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks hippimom. I appreciate your wisdom and advice.

Sarazakmom, I understand how you feel. It's a constant fight to keep up your energy level. Stay encouraged and keep everyone here posted. It's a nice change to communicate with people who get it.
✚ New Topic ✚ Reply