5 years ago
April 14, 2008
Arthritis......or no arthritis?
So as many of you know, I was diagnosed with arthritis back in high school. I haven't had any symptoms now for years. I went to a new rheumatologist a few weeks ago and he differed in opinion to the one I had been seeing in IF before we got married. He is thinking that my lupus arthritis is not "true" lupus but rather is minocycline induced lupus (a medication I was on at the time I was first diagnosed for my acne). There has been some research to show that minocycline has weird and rare adverse affects such as causing/mimicking the same symptom as lupus but the symptoms resolve when the minocycline is stopped. I remember back in high school my mom and determatologist both wondered about the minocycline being the culprit but I guess that doctor didn't believe it or something. Even though he didn't believe that's what my arthritis symptoms were from, my determatologist switched me to a different medication for my acne. (Big thanks to her now!!) So my new rheumatologist did a bunch of lab work and said it all looked fine. So we decided to stop the plaquenil (the med I've been on since I was diagnosed with lupus arthritis) and see how it goes. Meaning, if I don't have any symptoms when the medication wears out of my body I just had minocycline induced lupus. If symptoms do reappear then I just have a very strange case of lupus (because usually there are more systems affected by it than just the joints, like with me). We're hoping the former is the case! It would be great to not have to buy meds for it any more or pay higher insurance premiums! So right now we just have to wait and see what happens. But the rheumatologist said he doesn't need to see me anymore unless I start having problems. It will be strange (but good) only seeing a doctor for my annual check-ups since I've been going to a specialist for so long now.
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4 comments:
Oh how I hope and pray that it was cause by the medication. That would be so awesome. Please keep us informed. I also wanted to let you know that you were missed on Saturday! Love ya!
That's GREAT news!! We really hope everything goes well with going off of the meds. Keep us posted on it all. Brian said no problem about the contacts. He's glad that he can help out in that area. We love the video of Ace and the basketball. We still can't get over his ears! :0)
Wow!! That is some news!! You'll have to let me know... are you guys still coming this weekend?!?
That sounds like really wonderful news. We'll be hoping and praying for you.
Also, when are you and Kandra and spouses going to come back to Boise so we can all go to the temple together?
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