I’m in a battle here. How much do dr rely on blood work for a autoimmune diagnoses? Cant it take years of negative bloodwork before it ever shows its face all the while showing symptoms? My blood work is so inconsistent yet i hurt so bad.
I guess it depends if they are doing the right tests. I was just diagnosed after decades of being sick. It took the right doc to be suspicious and to test for a couple of other things…I as a layman have no idea what they SHOULD be testing. I just seemed to get the same routine tests from every doc I went to, from the time I was a teenager, till they (or I) finally hit the jackpot!! (At almost age 59!)
This is my litmus test for doctors. The second one tells me that I don’t have lupus because my blood work was negative, I’m fine with that doc because they obviously don’t understand the disease.
Have they done a test with the Exagen test introduced in 2012
Approximately 1%of lu o us patients are ANA negative as I am. That test tends to be the only thing some docs focus on. It took a biopsy to find the right diagnosis and you know your body best. Insist on alternative test if that one is negative. You are going to have to be proactive.
No that test (exagen) has not been done
well they do rely on the bloodwork to check your sed rate, but i do not know how much that really tells , lupus is such a hit and miss disease, the ANA test basically just tells if you have the lupus factor in your blood, i just hate lupus, my mom is in total denial, she just does not want to believe i have it,,,,,mainly because my dad died of complications from lupus............. i have lupus sle, but lately ii have been getting lesions on my face , and i jjust hate it.......purrs..catspaw1955
The truth is a good doctor is key. I spent years with a doctor that i thought was great. My family insisted that i get a second opion. One visit and he said i have sle. Blood work also showed lupus
Fight until you find someone
jj
It took 8 years for me to get diagnosed because my ANA, while high, wasn’t high enough to suit 2 rheumatologists, who ignored all my other lupus symptoms, including low platelets. Even my current doctor only calls being sicker a flare with some blood work proof of it . I had a high sed rate only once, but he considers it a sign of flare. Lately, I have had high crp, (sed rate and crp show inflammatio) most doctors go by blood tests more than anything else, in my opinion.
I had blood work in 1998 after younger sister was diag w/lupus. ANA High, lupus comprehensive panel high - my DR at the time said not to worry, everything was fine.
Not until I started to have frequent face rash and fatigue and saw a different dr that is was determined I have lupus.
Try and find a dr who knows lupus is your best bet. I have in Reno NV and I have yet to find a dr here who know much lupus or treats mainly lupus patients. Had to go to SF to get diag.
Hi
I was diagnosed with SLE less that 1 year after symptons started. I have lichen planus and it was my dermo thatsuspected that I might have lupus. She did a biopsy and sent me to a rheumy. He said I was " Lupus suspect" 3 months later I had an allergic reation to yet another antibiotic. She did another biopsy and that convinced my rheumy that I had SLE From what I have been hearing. II had one of the fastest diagnosis. Good luck and keep searching for answers.