How many autoimmune diseases can you have?

I'm so happy for you. It helps a lot to focus on the second Journey. The second Journey is the best. The first Journey, I think, is all about trying to spread as much love as we can. It's not easy. But we need to try. It's really hard though when we're always sick. But the second Journey is what it's all about.

Have you looked into igenix in California for blood testing of Lyme disease and Co infections most of your diseases are from Lyme believe it or not I know I have them all also And my doctor tells me there's over 40 patients in his office with the same thing so I highly recommend it getting tested for Lyme.

I was extensively tested for Lyme about 10 years ago because yes a lot of the SXs are like those of Lyme Disease. The tests were processed at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, all negative. A flow cytometry was done on the T & B cells, also processed in Rochester. Basically I have the T & B cell make-up of someone with end stage AIDS, which they are always discreetly asking me if I'm okay with them testing me for HIV. Yes yes yes, do whatever you want, I say because I know that it'll be negative, & it is negative. I practically have zero NKCs...it boils down to that I can't make antibodies. Covid vaccines are a waste on me. Instead the 3 that I have had always resulted in Shingles though I was vaccinated against Shingles. But as I now know, vaccines do nothing to induce the production of antibodies. I'm almost 72, so I had all the childhood vaccines & boosters but that was many many decades ago & I probably need a measles booster but I sure won't be getting one because it'll just give me measles. I'm catching weird infections like Tom Hanks in "Philadelphia." I have these small growths all over my back. The largest one, 0.8cm x 0.6 cm, was removed & BXd. I now wish I'd gotten it BXd at a major hospital in the US. Too late now. The path lab said it was a dermatofibroma but after my own research I see that dermatofibromas are easy to confuse with soft tissue sarcomas. I've got smaller ones all over the back but this one had been growing for 10 years & everyone was saying oh it's just a mole but it never looked like a mole. Being on the back meant that I easily forgot about until it started itching now & then. It had a long root & was the best one to BX. Of course the sample is gone now & the others are so small. But what bothers me is that every time something is BXd, part of the findings always say "lymphocyte invasion." The lip BX for Sjögrens, the thigh muscle BX for Polymyositis, which interestingly was also positive for Dermatomyositis (nothing to do with dermatofibromas btw), it's always lymphocyte invasion that is messing up everything, taking over everything, um, & killing everything else, 😶, um 😐 like um, the C word? I've got other tests that have findings of lymphocyte invasion but right now my memory is shot so I don't recall what the tests were for. My vascular doc (I'm on a NOAC med for blood clot prevention--Apixaban) scanned the legs because I've got painful little bumps everywhere, on the arms too. I thought they were ganglion cysts but he says the ultrasound shows that the fascia is disintegrating (?) & in some places there are actual holes in the fascia & tiny bits of muscle tissue pokes out through the holes, like a hernia, & whenever the muscle moves even a tiny bit, the fascia squeezes the muscle bump. I'm like, say what?? Never heard of that. The little bumps are so painful that if they touch anything at all, the edge of a upholstered chair, a table, anything, I'm screaming. It's been like that for years. Then the bumps go away. But they always come back somewhere. I saw the ultrasound of the fascia on my atrophied legs and the fascia looks horrible. In some places it's totally gone. In other places it's patchy. My arms look like arms of a skeleton, zero fat. No fat protection on the elbows so I have to wear elbow pads. A new brain MRI says I have a cranial CSF leak but it doesn't say where the leak is. WTHeck? I have the postural headaches that go with a CSF leak, plus the vertigo, but sometimes my nose leaks profusely & sometimes it doesn't. My pituitary was flattened at some point by a flood of CSF that came flooding in like a tsunami & squashed the pituitary flat. I have a selar arachnoid cyst in the Sella Turcica and it's gone from a grade 2 to grade 3, filling up with CSF but lol nobody cares! I've also got a bunch of arachnoid cysts behind the R eye, seen on MRI (assumed to be arachnoid cysts but who knows?), & again, lol, nobody cares or wants to find out what they are & could they be impinging on the R optic nerve or the eyelid abductor muscle? And nobody cares! And this is at the best hospital in Mexico, in Mexico City, the American British Cowdray Hospital. I'm coming up NOB (north of the border) soon, to visit family in OR, hopefully I can get someone interested to find out what all this stuff is. Because nobody here cares! Something new is always showing up every few weeks now. I don't know what to make of it all or even who I should see. I'm so worn out from advocating for myself for over 30 years now, since I first got SXs of Multiple Sclerosis in my early 30s. I've got just about everything now. Grrrr 😖

Mayo Clinic testing is through Western Bloc and elsie test and these are a total joke. I'm 72 also And I've been Fighting this battle for a long time thank God medicare pays for Igenix and I went with their high end test which was like $3600 medicare paid for it this one really showed all the co infections. just remember when your immune system starts to drop off, you don't produce antibodies at least this is what I'm told by my doctor. My one friend she has bumps all over her body which are very sensitive to touch turns out it was babesia. I'm not saying You have this or these coinfections but why not get tested it's not going to cost you anything that's if you have Medicare. My infectious disease doctor says that there's over 800,000 people walking around with Lyme disease and co-infections and have no clue they have it insurance companies don't want to know it And neither does the pharmaceuticals because they're not making any money from it right now. most of your lime doctors charge cash no insurance what a joke. Good luck in your quest to find the answers I know I'm still fighting.

My daughter has 4.

I am so so sad for your daughter. For children it's especially cruel & unfair for them to have to deal with rotten health from the very young age of just being a child. We will never know why some people go through life relatively unscathed while others get more than their fair share of disease & disability. It's unexplainable. It's just the luck of the draw. Much love to your dear daughter. ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Oh my gosh. I think you have a good reason for me to be tested. I've been out of the US for 20 years so at this moment I don't have SS, nor Medicare. I applied last summer but they messed around with me, like they wanted to make sure I didn't get everything completed during the 6?month deadline & so now I have to start all over & with the current situation in DC, I don't think I'll ever see a SS check nor Medicare. But I'd like to get tested anyway. In my 40s I was a long distance hiker on the Appalachian Trail so I have a risk factor for sure. I've been told to get my entire genome sequenced as well. Why not. I'd love to find the answers before I die, because all 4 of my adult children are also genetically sick, so it behooves them to have answers as well as my little grandson. Thank you. Hoping things are better for you now.

Auto correct is wrong. I didn't mean to say my adult children are genetically sick but instead it should have been generally sick as well . The family tree does have some pretty bad stuff though so some of it is DNA.

I thought there was a branch of the Mayo Clinic here in Florida.

Hello @aprillwone, Welcome to Connect. Here's the page for Mayo Clinic Florida - https://www.mayoclinic.org/patient-visitor-guide/florida.

Are you looking to make an appointment?