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Okay, so a little medical history. I've been a bit sick for a while now. It started when I was 16 and has been getting progressively worse.
At least once a year I get ulcers in my mouth and down my throat. Every time I get them I go to the doctor and every time they cannot figure out what's causing them. The best one doctor could do to explain was to tell me that my body seemed to be attacking itself by accident.
A few years later I was diagnosed with ADHD.
The next year I was diagnosed with IBS.
The next year I was diagnosed with multiple allergies, including several food allergies, and mild asthma.
I guess I just figured I was really unlucky.
I live in Japan right now, so that seems to be complicating my ability to seek medical advice. My current symptoms are:
joint pain and swelling (particularly in my knees, my neck, and in all of the joints of my right arm);
muscular pain around joints along with muscle spasms;
pressure point near right shoulder blade that I want to press on to relieve pain (ie shiatsu massage), however, if I do, I feel as if I will black out;
sore muscles in neck and significant pain at the very top of the spinal column where the spine meets the skull;
feeling as though my neck were on fire when I try to lie down;
pain in lower back and along spine when lying down;
headaches emanating from the base of the skull;
general fatigue;
fatigue and dizziness (vertigo) after exercising (biking home);
red rash across nose and cheeks;
and a flaky red rash on fingers that comes and goes.
I spoke with my doctor in the US and he said he believed that Lupus was a posibility. I decided to go to a doctor in Japan and he ran a CBC but he wouldn't run an ANA. He said that he doesn't think I have an autoimunne disease because my white blood cell count was normal.
He ran tests for rheumatoid arthritis and strep, and they both came back negative. He gave me medication for the pain (enough for two days), said he couldn't do anything else, and sent me home. The pain is getting worse and now the lymph nodes behind my ears are swollen and painful.
I'm willing to accept the doctor's suggestion that it is not an autoimmune disease, but is it possible to have lupus with a regular white blood cell count? Should I go back to the doctor and make him run more tests? I just don't know how much longer I can deal with the pain. :worried:
At least once a year I get ulcers in my mouth and down my throat. Every time I get them I go to the doctor and every time they cannot figure out what's causing them. The best one doctor could do to explain was to tell me that my body seemed to be attacking itself by accident.
A few years later I was diagnosed with ADHD.
The next year I was diagnosed with IBS.
The next year I was diagnosed with multiple allergies, including several food allergies, and mild asthma.
I guess I just figured I was really unlucky.
I live in Japan right now, so that seems to be complicating my ability to seek medical advice. My current symptoms are:
joint pain and swelling (particularly in my knees, my neck, and in all of the joints of my right arm);
muscular pain around joints along with muscle spasms;
pressure point near right shoulder blade that I want to press on to relieve pain (ie shiatsu massage), however, if I do, I feel as if I will black out;
sore muscles in neck and significant pain at the very top of the spinal column where the spine meets the skull;
feeling as though my neck were on fire when I try to lie down;
pain in lower back and along spine when lying down;
headaches emanating from the base of the skull;
general fatigue;
fatigue and dizziness (vertigo) after exercising (biking home);
red rash across nose and cheeks;
and a flaky red rash on fingers that comes and goes.
I spoke with my doctor in the US and he said he believed that Lupus was a posibility. I decided to go to a doctor in Japan and he ran a CBC but he wouldn't run an ANA. He said that he doesn't think I have an autoimunne disease because my white blood cell count was normal.
He ran tests for rheumatoid arthritis and strep, and they both came back negative. He gave me medication for the pain (enough for two days), said he couldn't do anything else, and sent me home. The pain is getting worse and now the lymph nodes behind my ears are swollen and painful.
I'm willing to accept the doctor's suggestion that it is not an autoimmune disease, but is it possible to have lupus with a regular white blood cell count? Should I go back to the doctor and make him run more tests? I just don't know how much longer I can deal with the pain. :worried: