[angieD]

Sorry if this is in the wrong place.
Hope you are all as well as you can be.
I' ve had a few months of feeling very unwell & I was sick of my GPs lack of knowledge so I sent a letter to Dr D'Cruz at St Thomas' , explaining the way I felt & enclosed a list of symptoms & blood results.
I recieved a call from Kay (one of the nurses at the unit), on Monday to see if I was okay & to find out what the GP had done.
I told her I'd got an appointment with the local rheumy Wednesday & she asked me to give her a call later today so they can decide what to do.

I saw my new rheumy yesterday ,she looked at my symptom list & blood results from Gp and said that it looked like I'd had a flare.
She checked blood results of bloodtests I had at the hospital 2 weeks ago , my c4 is 0.18 (ref range 0.20 - 0.65 ), IGG 9.8 ,IGA 0.68 (0.8 - 2.8)MCH 26.3 ,RDW 16.3 ,lymphocytes 1.53 ,CRP 8 ,eGFR 67
ds DNA abs 33.
She said she wouldn't change medication at the moment, she did say that she was reluctant to give me steroids because of an increase in the chance of clots. She prescribed Amitriptyllin to try & help with pain ,so I can sleep better. She's also ordered a brain MRI to check for infarcts.
She also said I was borderline lupus & they would have to see if I'd develop full blown lupus.On the whole I was very pleased with my appointment.
Could I ask about the ds DNA , on previous tests it was always reported as negative , never a number or range, is this normal ?
Also the IGA, what would cause it to be lower than normal ?
Thanks for reading
Love Angied

 

[Taree]

Hi AngieD. Sorry I can't be of any help... just wanted to say hello and hope you get some answers and feel better soon!

 

[helloos]

Hi there.

I am glad that you are getting some help and hope that the med helps your pain level.

As far as the blood work, I thought that it said negative if none were found, but if positive it would give the number? I could be wrong, but I am sure someone else will have the right answer.

I hope that you start to feel better and good luck with your tests.

 

[Maia]

There are actually lots of different types of IgA, as IgA is made for all sorts of different reasons. For me, my overall IgA is measured low (it's a measure of immune function, protects against infection in the mucuos membranes primarily such as eyes/ears/nose/throat/gut/etc!). When IgA measures low, it's merely called IgA deficiency. People with low IgA are more likely than average to develop lupus and infections in the areas mentioned.

You'll need to ask what IgA was measured - if it was overall or for something specific.

Glad to hear you've found a better doctor!