So I went to my follow up appt with my rheumy. I’m doing much better since the last appt. I was in a huge flare and he had increased the medrol to 8mg/day and changed me from imuran to myfortic (cellcept derivative). He said "you’re almost smiling which I haven’t seen in forever). So he increased the myfortic since I’m tolerating it, in the hopes that we can begin to eventually reduce the medrol. Since I still have the malar rash (which he thought I had been out in the sun with a sunburn), he sent me downstairs to their dermatology dept. “tell them you’re my patient and I want a biopsy”.
The dermatologist was immediately asking if I have systemic lupus because of the way the rash (not bumpy just RED) looks. He looked over my records and said the tests have been inconclusive but in his opinion it looks like lupus or dermatomyositis. I told him I had a biopsy last year after sun exposure (upstate in my hick town) and he said that’s an immunoflouresent study and that’s not what they need. If I’d had any sun exposure it would come back positive (which it had). So he did a biopsy on my chest. It’s deep. It hurts some. I’ll know in a week. I just hope it says something concrete so to speak. So I know…so I’m not in limbo anymore.