Lupus or Rheumatoid Arthritis anyone?

Long story short. Ever since i was 15 i have had what i thought were 'growing pains'
so after long enough i bit the bullet and went to my GP to get it checked out explained my symptoms blah blah blah....
Whilst talking she mentioned that it could be Lupus or Rheumatoid Arthritis so sent me off for a whole bunch of blood tests.

about an hour ago i get a call from my GP's receptionist telling me i need to come in ASAP. :pray: and that they have sent off a referal to the x-ray joint and i need to go tomorrow morning.

My nan has Lupus, so im a little concerned. I know i am jumping ahead of myself but generally my GP works in the way that if you dont hear from us its all good, if we call its all bad!!
Does anyone have any information on either of these conditions?

TIA :loveshower:

sorry hun i dont know a lot but my SIL has Lupus it was the cause of her having to have her lil boy at 28 weeks. Basically it makes her immune system low so when she gets ill she gets really ill Hope you find some more info hun

Yeah i have all the symptoms unfortunatly, and had a premmie baby (dunno if it has any relation :dunno:)

I have rheumatoid arthritis... It can range from only a few joints mildly affected to every single joint in agony. I'm one of the unlucky ones who has every single joint affected by it. But I'm lucky in that it doesn't seem to be permanently damaging my joints. I have a serum-negative form of RA so nothing shows in my bloodwork other than markers to show that inflammation is present.

I don't know a great deal about lupus - I have an aunt and a cousin with lupus and all I know is that they are like me - there's nothing that makes them look sick, but they do have a lot of pain.

Both conditions can vary massively, so I know it's annoying but you really can't determine anything until you get those test results. The fact that they are doing xrays makes me think RA, because of the damage it can do to joints, but I don't know if lupus can damage joints or not, so I could be wrong.

I know both are conditions where the immune system starts to attack the wrong things, and the treatments generally involve suppressing the immune system.

BW

Thanks BW :hug:

So how did the tests go?
I have Lupus.
Let me know if there's anything specific I can help you with, but what BW said is right, the symptoms vary heaps and heaps, but basically it's all about a faulty immune system.
Oh, and I had both my babies around their due dates.