i have the following symptoms:
1. frequent low grade fevers
2. frequent extreme fatigue
3. Joint pain
4. Muscle aches and deep muscle pain associated with muscular weakness
5. history of pericarditis and inflammation of lining of chest wall
6. Chills- always cold. fingers and toes turn white and or blue and purple with cold.
7. butterfly rash
8. other odd rashes
9. stomac pain
10. Migraines
11. sores in mouth and throat
12. sore throats for no reason
13. calf pain
14. extreme weakness
15. hair falling out in large quantities and fast
16. sun sensitivity
17. calf pain
18. multiple chemical sensitivity or multiple allergies to many different medicines.
19. three miscarrages, 4 additional pregnancies 2 babies died for no apparent reason all i am told is it was nothing i did and i am not to blame.

but the only thing my doc cares about is that my ANA is negative and so there is nothing wrong with me and i can not possibly have lupus. how sick do i have to get before i am sick enough? are there documented cases of lupus with negative ANA's? or am i crazy like it has been implied. i am now treated like a hysterical depressed female. can anyone help me? i wind up in tears every time i go to the doctor because i am told my symptoms are psycologically based.

I forgot a few things
one of them is that my memory is horrid. I go to the store and forget why. i also fall a lot, trip, bump into things, and bruise so easily it isnt funny. the funny part is some of the bruises appear without my falling, tripping or bumping into things. my husband is a rock through all of this. and even gets mad at the doctors when they say there is nothing wrong. he has seen how bad my bad days are and how poor my good days have been lately. heck when i cant sleep he cant either. i have no clue how he knows but he always knows when i am awake and in pain at night. oh and my doctor decided i have allergies and is giving me allergy meds and a nasal spray... funny how the steroids sneaked up on me cause the nasal spray is a steroid related to prednisone. i have been sick for more than 6 years. and during this time i have been sent to the psyciatrist so many times it isn't funny. and only 1 of them thought i had a mental problem. haha and his opinion has been over turned by 5 others since he decided to listen to my quak of a doc. i have changed docs 6 times because they refused to believe me. i just changed to this new one and already he says there is no reason to look for a cause of the pain and refered me to the local mental health office. what do i have to do? die? be hospitalized? i did that with pericarditis, and still there is nothing wrong with me as my ANA is neg. can someone help me i may go crazy just because i am kind of starting to believe these doctors when they say all of this is in my head. even the diagnosed problems (ie the pericarditis, inflammation of chest lining, and other documented illnesses).

Hello,

I would recommend you see a good natropath and stay away from doctors seeming they are being of no help to you. I have found in my own experiences that many doctors are just peddlers for the drug companies. Natropaths can help you and your body the natural way and do many tests that doctors don't do that give a clearer picture of what is happening in the body such as blood analasis and hair analasis. Ginko Biloba ( herb ) is great for the memory and concentration and doesn't take long to work (take about 7000 mg a day in capsule form) Yoga and deep breathing also helps the brain and whole body. So many things can help you other than doctors if you are willing to give them a try. Lots of love to you. If you would like me to do some distance Reiki healing for you let me know at my Email address.

Hello,

I would recommend you see a good natropath and stay away from doctors seeming they are being of no help to you. I have found in my own experiences that many doctors are just peddlers for the drug companies. Natropaths can help you and your body the natural way and do many tests that doctors don't do that give a clearer picture of what is happening in the body such as blood analasis and hair analasis. Ginko Biloba ( herb ) is great for the memory and concentration and doesn't take long to work (take about 7000 mg a day in capsule form) Yoga and deep breathing also helps the brain and whole body. So many things can help you other than doctors if you are willing to give them a try. Lots of love to you. If you would like me to do some distance Reiki healing for you let me know at my Email address.

Hello,

I would recommend you see a good natropath and stay away from doctors seeming they are being of no help to you. I have found in my own experiences that many doctors are just peddlers for the drug companies. Natropaths can help you and your body the natural way and do many tests that doctors don't do that give a clearer picture of what is happening in the body such as blood analasis and hair analasis. Ginko Biloba ( herb ) is great for the memory and concentration and doesn't take long to work (take about 7000 mg a day in capsule form) Yoga and deep breathing also helps the brain and whole body. So many things can help you other than doctors if you are willing to give them a try. Lots of love to you. If you would like me to do some distance Reiki healing for you let me know at my Email address.

Hartlink,
I'm really sorry to see you going through all this pain and frustration. One really important question.....were any of the Drs. you saw rheumatologists? They seem to be the only ones that diagnose these autoimmune diseases without test results to back it up. The only way I'd say it might be psychological is if you only developed the symptoms AFTER reading or hearing about them. Read the past posts by Ready, also the ones about drug induced Lupus. I'm newly diagnosed with Raynauds, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Lupus. Prior to that I also had carpal tunnel, IBS, and lots of allergy and sinus problems. I experience the following symptoms from your list--- #'s 2,3,4,6,8,11,16. I can definitely tell you that #6 is Raynauds, but there are two types; one whose cause is unknown, and one where they list AI diseases as a cause. As far as the tests go, I had a positive ANA but all the other tests they've run have been negative. The Dr. didn't change his dx when the others came back negative.I literally had to threaten my reg. Dr. to even run the first test. I then quickly switched to a rheumy Dr. I would be careful about relying ONLY on homopathic remedies as suggested above. I believe a lot of what they do is great, but if you do have some of these AI diseases, it's important to get treatment to stop the progression as early in the disease as possible. It would be great if you could find a Dr. and homopath combined. There really are some out there. FM symptoms also sometimes mirror the Lupus and RA symptoms. Hopefully Jeri and some of the others will respond soon as they're more knowledgable on the subject. Sometimes we just don't have the energy or time to spend on the board like people with other diseases do. I also think you can get a lot of knowledge and courage from reading some of the posts from the old board too.
Don't give up hope, and keep standing up for yourself.
Ann

Ann S,
i see an internist. i am trying to get into a university program so i can see a ruemetologist (i can't spell). most of my symptoms have been going on for years. they say it is because my son died in dec 2000. but i have been sick since before my 6yr old was born. and my mind can not cause the butterfly rash or my hair to fall out, or the fact that my fingers and toes change color when i am cold. as to homeopathic i am allergic to everything and can not afford those methods anyway. limited income and no insurance makes it impossible. also i nearly died cause my mom wouldnt do anything but homeopathic and i had pnemonia (wound up in an oxegen tent and spent 2wks in the hospital). i have had migraines since childhood- my first memory is of a migraine. i have a councler and see a psyciatrist next thurs. my councler says i am depressed but that without treating my pain she can not say how much is because of constant pain. she also indicated that she doesnt feel it is "all in my head". thank you. i was begining to feel a lil like i should give up and suffer. autoimmune diseases run in my family. sorry to sound like i am wining. i am just tired of feeling so bad and being so weak that i cant do the stuff i want to.

Hi....Been going thru the same thing over the past 5 years. To the point where I've even thought I was a hypochondriac!! Finally found a rheumatologist to really listen to me and let me list all my symptoms. She also did the tests and ANA was negative, but she didn't rule out lupus - she said there is something called serum negative lupus - it's rare, but it exists. She picked up on some neurological oddities while at my visit and had me see a neurologist, who has discovered that some (if not most) of my symptoms are actually being caused by a condition with my cervical spine called cervical stenosis with myelopathy. No, this doesn't explain the rashes, bruising, sun sensitivity, etc, but it does address many of the other symptoms. Please look for a rheumatologist who specializes in autoimmune disorders and also have a neurological workup. Although my symptoms haven't abated, I do feel better now knowing what I'm dealing with.

I am VERY sorry to hear about your son. It is a known fact that trauma and stress can actually cause a flare up of an autoimmune disease, that could be why you are feeling so poorly now. I can't imagine anything more stressful than losing a child.

thank you for the info. and as to losing my son, i just wish i knew why. this is the second baby i have carried long enough to deliver take care of at home and lose suddenly for no reason. nearly five years ago my second child, a girl, died for no apparent reason. they ruled it SIDS. this time again no reason. all i have been told is that it was not anything i did. the fact that it has been nearly four months and i still have no idea what happened doesnt help my emotional situation. neither does being told what is wrong is "all in my head". thanks for the info on serum negative lupus. is there any medical documentation of this occuring?

everyone has commented on leg pain i have a question on the calf pain... TOTALLY separate from the pain in my knees. i have a space about 2in long and less than an inch wide that has hurt horribly for a few months (1.5-2.5) and my doc claims it is muscle pain with no exam. i am on flexeril to help me sleep and it is also a muscle relaxer. i would think if this is a muscle pain that would help. is this normal??? i mean it is just that small area. not the whole muscle or calf. and this is definately NOT bone pain. i have that in my arms from my wrists and hands. i just have no idea how hard to push my new doc (an internist) who says that since my ANA was neg there is no reason to look further and has refered my to a psyciatrist. who i see thursday. i am in councling and my councler does not think this is a mental problem and yet the drs keep saying it is. am i crazy to think they just dont want to diagnose me w/o a "perfect/classic" case? i mean i HAVE the butterfly rash. i have the joint pain. i had pericarditis 4yrs ago. i have the other weird rashes. my hair is falling out. my thyroid is normal. i just found that one out by the way. i get to see a ruemetologist in june. that is if they let me. i am frustrated and confussed. i want to scream in frustration and cry at the same time. i wish i did smoke. but i have asthma. and now instead of an ulcer they are calling it gerd. my ribs and chest hurt so bad i can't put on my bra anymore. should i hurt this bad? should i be weak enough that sometimes i colapse if i stand more than 5-10 min? i mean is this so normal i have nothing wrong with me? sorry to vent like this, but i just had a nice icq from my mother who has decided that my problem is i am over weight. hmmm lets see.... i was severly underweight whne this started and i lost a massive amount of weight last year. yes i am over weight. but the problems are no caused by my weight problem, rather they caused the weight problem. can anyone help me here? feel free to email me at KaitlinAnneBowerman@usa.net i need some kind of idea on if i am just normal physically and crazy to think something is wrong.

GOOD NEWS!!! I saw the DR today, and he is doing some more blood work to check on my thyroid and hormone levels, BUT here is the important part, he said that i am sick but there is no blood test out there right now that can tell us WHICH AUTOIMMUNE DISORDER i have. he meantioned lupus and mctd and said there are more than 80 possibilities. hahahahah finally i am sick enough to get them to admit it.