jaxzin said...
I've been having slight what feels like muscle pain. Doesn't take place in whole muscle, just a particular spot. which maybe tendon pain?
Also been getting hives / wheals that manifest at random.
Suppose my question is to you guys if my UC could be leading to the other symptoms?
Yes, about
20% of UC patients have extraintestinal-manifestations. We can have various types of inflammation elsewhere within our bodies including: rashes, eye inflammation, joint inflammation (joint pains or aches), sinus inflammation, tear duct inflammation, among other things. Sometimes (but not always) that body-wide inflammation is directly tied to how well your UC symptoms are doing. For example, when our UC is in a remission we might have no other issues, but when UC flares we also suffer from joint aches. That is not always the case though, as sometimes even in a remission we might have joint issues that bother us. We already know our immune systems are a bit wacky and prone to attack-self, as we have a UC. Sometiems this can manifest itself as skin allergies (like a contact-dermatitis which I've had before, where harsh chemical body soaps, shampoos, and laundry detergents cause outbreaks). Sometimes we can even have second or third autoimmune disorders that develop further down the line, years after getting a UC (get a psoriasis, eczema, RA, among other things).
With a positive ANA, it is worth seeing a Rheumatologist to investigate further. However, at this point, I wouldn't assume the worstcase. As you can get false-positive ANA results. Your Rheumatologist will run additional tests and see if it is true.
Here's some additional reading on extraintestinal-manifestations of UC:
/academic.oup.com/ibdjournal/article/21/8/1982/4602969/pdfs.semanticscholar.org/112f/7229848693949684defb6bf003f69a8eabab.pdf