Hi all! My name is Heather and I am a 34 mom of 3. I am getting to a very frustrated point.
I started out at the end of May with a strong bout of Laryngitis this persisted for about a week with sinus infection adding too it.About 3-4 days into this I started getting this rash on my hands that went over the knuckles. After the week I finally decided to go to the DR. I ended up having to go to a little Open Clinic thing and they said "OH IT"S JUST A VIRAL THING" and sent me on my way. I didn't think to tell them about the little rash at the time. The Laryingitis finally let up but the Sinus Infection continued to make me miserable. The rash got brighter and was all over my fingers along with a great deal of pain in my hands, upper arms, and RT hip.I also started noticing the rash was over the parts of my upper arms and shoulders that hurt. I developed a bright red rash over my face as well. I finally went to my family Dr. at the end of June. He put me on an antibiotic and told be that the rash was possibly STREP related. He said it was similar to the strain that caused Rheumatic Fever and such, back in the day. I took the antibiotic for the 5 days and nothing happened. No relief from the Sinus Infection or the rash/pain. I called him back and he put me on another Antibiotic this time for a 10 day run. Sinus infection went away but nothing else did. The pain got more intense to the point that it makes me nauseated. I am EXTREMELY photosenstive and have been for a couple of years now. But with this rash it get's as red as can be and makes me very sick to be in the sun. When I go into any heat (bath, shower, warm air) or cold the pain gets worse and so does the rash. My face even hurts. I called my Dr. back on July 11 and he ordered general labs with an RA factor,Sed Rate ANA.
ANA-1:160 Nucoleolar pattern HIGH
RA- normal
Sed Rate- Normal All other labs CBC and such were normal
He then referred me to a Rheumatolgist and I actually got in on a cancellation (THANK GOD
) on this past Monday. She barely did an exam, did not say much about the rash other than to tell me to wear sunscreen, which I do. After going over labs she said a positive ANA doesn't mean too much. I do have points of possible Fibromyalgia but due to the fact that my daughter has
SYSTEM JUVENILE RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS, my grandmother had
RHEUMATIOD ARTHRITIS and my aunt has
SYSTEMIC LUPUS. she decided that she wanted to run more tests. A nice lovely long list of tests. I just got back the first batch of those results and they are as follows.
Sed Rate- normal
CCP Antibodies - Nomral
CRP- nomral
Anti-dsDNA- normal
Vitamin D-normal
C3 - normal
c4- HIGH
Sjogrens anti ss-a and ssb- both normal
RNP antibodies-normal
SMith antibodies-normal
G-6-PD- normal
URINALYSIS - all normal except for TRACE OF KETONES
I think there are still a few more out at the lab but I am still miserable. I still have this awful rash. There are days I can not lift my arms, type or turn a page. This is driving me up a wall. Any ideas outhere? I will take any suggestions that anyone can pass on.
