hepperterry

Hey everyone! After reading Alice's posting it made me curious. Before I was diagnosed with Hep C I had a lot of neck, left wrist and left ankle and overall joint pain. In fact at times even now I catch my left thumb "retracting" under my palm. As a former lab tech I was curious at the time if I had arthritis so I did an RA titer. Sure enough it came up positive. Only thing is the RA titer will sometimes be positive and at other times will be negative. Is the Hep C doing this? The doctor at the time even ran an ANA titer to check and see if I had an autoimmune disease like Lupus. Sure enough it came back positive for like Mixed Connective Tissue Disease. Is there a link between this and the Hep C? The doctors now dont seem overly concerned about it but I havent really talked to them about it either. I take Aleve now for the shoulder pain I get and the doctors seem to think that is fine. Its the only medicine that seems to really help ease the pain even though it may take a day or two. Just wondering if there is a connection between the Hep C and any autoimmune diseases like MCTD. Thanbey I would love to hear what you know. Thanks everyone.

Terry