[Mrs M]

Hi everyone! New to site and struggling a bit to find my way around!
Had many symptoms of Lupus for a while and GP thought it could be so referred me to a rheumy. Rheumy did blood tests 5 weeks ago and said that he thinks it was early signs of SLE. Blood tests back yesterday and on some it couldn't say yes or no to lupus so GP said that the main lupus test was negative therefore no diagnosis yet! I feel like I'll never get answers and just keep plodding on feeling terrible.
I was diagnosed July 2007 with IBS and given mebeverine to take 3 times a day of which I stiil do a year down the line. I forgot to mention to rheumy that I take these every day and wondered if the results could have been effected by them????????

Can i just say that I'm so glad I found this site cos it's such a relief to hear I'm not the only one confused with everything that's happening. Wish you all well.

 

[Maia]

I doubt the tablets would have effected the test results but it's possible. Medicines such as immunosuppressants and prednisone can lead to negative test results in people with lupus, while other medications can actually cause positive test results in people without lupus.

You may want to obtain copies of the blood tests and go through each one with your doctor at a future appointment or research them on this site to see if anything was found to be positive or not. Most likely, the ANA test was negative for you given what you wrote. ANA negative lupus exists, but in only about 2-5% of lupus patients.

Most importantly, if you continue to have symptoms consistent with lupus, then keep up with rheumy visits or have your GP run some tests from time to time to monitor things for you. Some people have symptoms long before they develop the positive bloodwork for lupus.

 

[Mrs M]

Thanks for info Maia and I will try to get copy of blood tests although not sure how I'll make sense of them. Let's hope they are straight forward?
At rhuemy in a couple of weeks and my GP said that hopefully he can help me out as to what's going on with me! I think after reading other peoples experiences though I need to be a little bit patient and realise that this is not going to be easy.:hehe: