Barbara Strauss
I just read your March message, so you probably know by now if you have fibro, lupus, or both. I just wanted to tell you that I once had a postive ANA. My doctor just said to be aware of joint problems in the coming years. Five years later, I had a doctor rerun my ANA and it was negative. I was told by the doctor, nurses, and by other people on the internet, some were the staff of various chronic illness forums, that a person can have a positibe ANA if he/she has infection in his/her body at the time the test was run. It says on all of the Health sites that a positive ANA is not a complete indicator of lupus. There are other lupus tests they can run. I, unfortunately, don't know what they are, but I am sure your doctors will. Even though fibro is a mess to have, I think that lupus would be worse has much more serious problems than the fibro does. I don't have either, but have been chasing something else for three years now and so far, not one doctor out of 17 has offered to do ANY tests to help me find out what is wrong. They either dismiss me and say they can't help (that is the surgeons, both ortho and neuro) OR they put me on narcotics which is where I am right now. I have had one appointment with a Mayo doctor who is sending me to their pain clinic, so I am hoping and praying that someone will finally be able to find out what is wrong. My fear is that they will still not try to find out what is wrong, but will try to find me alternate ways to control the pain. That's ok, but my preference is to get the problem at least identified and diagnosed, and then fixed if it is possible. No one can believe the nightmare I have been through with this. That is how I have come to know a lot about the lupus and fibro. Good luck.