hey guys, I need some of your expertise here....
auto immune disorders etc were never my strong suit in school, I muddled thru like many of us did but didnt care too much about all of it until now..
Few months ago I had weird onset of uncontrolled fevers , went to family MD was told I had a virus,okay fine two weeks after that, terrible onset of arthritis in the small joints of my hands
positive ANA titre of 1:320
speckled pattern consistant with SLE
family MD sent me to a rheumatologist who ran a whole bunch of tests , that have quite honestly frazzled me
heres the deal if you could shed some light I would really appreciate it
latest bloodwork results
ENA antibody screen - borderline positive
RO/SSA antibodies - borderline positive
Centromere - Positive
Scleroderma 70 antibody - borderline positive
so I went from a diagnosis of lupus *which I was just coming to terms with* to now potentially scleroderma
what has me so confused is the speckled pattern of the ANA smear....that usually doesnt happen with scleroderma does it?
and my anti dsDNA came back negative, which again is usually positive in lupus
I'm thinking scleroderma now, am going to my specialist tomorrow but being that I felt brushed off by him initially any input you guys could offer would be most appreciated
(really shoulda paid more attention in this unit in school!)
cheers