I'm wondering if anyone else has had a combined autoimmune disease (diagnosed or not) as well as chronic intestinal (lower left) pain, swelling etc???
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I've had lower left (intestinal, sigmoid area) pain for 3.5 years..numerous gastros have run tests, and basically tell me nothing is wrong with me.
Late July I saw a podiatrist for foot pain, he tested for gout and rheumatoid factors, both negative, BUT I had ANA's with a titer of 1:32. He sent me to a rhemy he ordered add'l blood tests, looking for specific markers to help with a diagnosis...no markers showed, however I had low complement C3 and C4's. I've been on Lodine (anti inflammatory) since then, and my foot is better..in addition to that, my intestinal discomfort, has greatly decreased...after all these years...I'm so happy to feel better...BUT concerned with 3.5 yrs of un-treated intestinal inflammation..what damage may have been done...also what kind of connection (if any) this may have to Lupus or another auto-immune disease. A week ago, I went back to my Dr. and he checked my ANA's again..which came back negative.
Hi Jan,
Are you having any other "autoimmune symptoms" like joint pain, fevers, rashes, fatigue?
I know that fibromyalgia patients have a tendancy for gastro problems. It was gastro problems that led to my lupus dx - I had severe diarrhea for 8 weeks (talk about a diet!), and they could never pinpoint what was going on - other than to attribute it to lupus.
Perhaps to ease your mind and find out conclusively, why not go back to a gastro doctor and let him/her check you out? Now that you're in "remission" thanks to the medicine, maybe they can see something that was missed before...
is there a connection? gasto and autoimmune? 
