I had my first appointment yesterday to be evaluated. I must say that although I have no definitive answers today about what is going on with me, I do feel that my rheumatologist listened and heard what I told him. I guess I will highlight what he said in just a few bullets here...
- My Advair (has a corticosteroid component) can and most likely did interfere with one or more of my test results
- I have a lot going on and some of it may be due to long-term steroid use; the other things are unexplained and are indicative of autoimmune disorder
- He agreed that a negative ANA result didn't really tell us anything one way or the other at this point
- He told me to please understand that many times an autoimmune disorder takes time to develop and therefore you may be symptomatic for some time without a
diagnosis.
- He did a residency at one of the Mayo Clinics and has a lot of experience with difficult to diagnose disorders.
He looked at pictures of things I had and did not dismiss one single symptom as being part of depression! He ordered more lab work (8 vials of blood and a urinalysis) and a bone density test (he was shocked that I had never had one of these done because of my history of steroid use). I go do the bone density test on the 29th. The phlebotomist told me that the results for the lab work he ordered will likely not be in before mid to late next week. I don't think I will know much of anything before then. I do feel that if after all of these tests are done, if he doesn't find enough evidence to diagnose me with any disorder at this time...I can live with that. I will go on and hope that I never develop one.