Connected Rheumatology

You trusted home for autoimmune information

Lupus

Pregnancy & Lupus

·

I’ve sat down with hundreds of young women as they find out they have lupus. Once a diagnosis is made, the conversations are largely one-sided. Explaining what lupus is, how we diagnosis it, and what we are going to do about it can take a while. I’ve seen every possible emotion you can think of wash over the faces of women as they absorb this news: relief at an answer, sadness at what it means, anger at why them, and then fear for their future. The fear, for many, circles around concerns over the possibility of a pregnancy with lupus. 

Lupus can affect anyone, but young women are the most commonly affected. Women in their teens, twenties and thirties, or what we call in medicine, the child-bearing years. Discussing issues related to pregnancy is a necessary component to a well-rounded lupus treatment strategy.

[Read more…] about Pregnancy & Lupus

Know the facts about your dsDNA antibody

·

Most lupus patients are familiar with the dsDNA antibody blood test. Like the ANA result, it is a blood test most closely related to  lupus. Occasionally a positive dsDNA result can be seen in other conditions. But, the presence of a dsDNA antibody is considered specific for a diagnosis of lupus. As there are multiple ways a lab may detect a dsDNA, there still remains the possibility of a false positive, but a positive dsDNA result warrants a trip to the rheumatologist. (Reminder = “false positive” simply means the test is positive, yet the patient doesn’t have the condition associated with that result) Patients often are referred to a rheumatologist with a notebook full of labs, mostly of all varieties of antibodies and it is overwhelming.

[Read more…] about Know the facts about your dsDNA antibody

Do you have common lupus symptoms?

·

This is going to sound strange and I hesitate to even say it…but after 10+ years of diagnosing and caring for lupus patients, I feel like I can “smell” lupus. It’s weird, I know. But when I’m approaching a consult, whether in the clinic or in the hospital, my lupus-spidey-sense gets activated if the patient has lupus. When I teach young doctors-in-training and listen to their long list of possible diagnoses, I get excited but also impatient, waiting for them to reach the same conclusion I’ve already reached.

[Read more…] about Do you have common lupus symptoms?

What you need to know about Lupus – Pt 2

·

Lupus is not a diagnosis that anyone wants to hear come from their doctor’s mouth. It’s not very well understood by most and although it can be comforting to know the reason for your symptoms, it can be downright terrifying to think about your future. Lupus is a condition of ups and downs, sometimes extreme downs, but it is possible to live a happy, full life while also living with lupus. 

[Read more…] about What you need to know about Lupus – Pt 2