I have not been diagnosed with SLE yet. Would love some insight from you ladies. I have been having uveitis on and off 8 times in the last three months. Went to eye doctor and she gave me steroid and mentioned it may be coming from lupus or lyme's disease. I work in a doctors office so we ordered some bloodwork and lyme's is negative but the ANA direct came back positive. So she ordered the SLE profile and it came back with the anti double stranded dna at 25 and normal is 0-9. My eyes are really my only symptoms. I do not have any joint pain. My only other possible symptoms is I have some melasma on my cheeks and heartburn ever since I had my little boy almost 3 years ago. I go to a rheumatologist on August 30th to see what they say. Wanted to see what you all may think or have some insight. Does it sound like lupus or just something weird and is that number really high for the anti double strand dna. Also if I have lupus how will this affect my future. Thank you all for letting me be a part of this group.
Hey there!! So unfortunately, Lupus affects everybody differently... some people have it with an outrageous number of symptoms, and some people can just live life like nothing and have it too. Rashes are definitely common with Lupus, most notably the "butterfly rash" which spreads across the cheeks. As for your future if you do have Lupus, obviously there is no cure, (not yet at least), but they do say it is no longer a death sentence as it may have been in the past; and some people choose to maintain Lupus through meds where as others may handle it without them. The main thing would be altering your sun/UV exposure, figuring out your triggers and just learning to work with it. I hope you get some answers after your visit with the Rheumy!! Also, based on my experience, try to think back a little before the uveitis... were there any other possible symptoms or things that may have seemed out of character for you? Such as fatigue, any other rashes, unusual hair loss, etc. If so, it's a good idea to jot down any of that stuff for your DR visit, just because some of those are common symptoms, but the symptoms for Lupus do range as well!
Best wishes to you, and hope you keep us posted with how everything goes at the Rheumy!!
Thank you so much. It's weird because I am in the sun every weekend and do not have any problems at all. Does that level for the anti double strand seem high to you? I will keep you posted. Thank you so much and hope you are well.