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@colleenyoung

Welcome @mils. What a great question to ask, regardless of the actually autoimmune condition one has. I LOVE the response you got from @chris47 here: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/comment/735862/

Chris, your post should be required reading for anyone diagnosed with a new or unconfirmed autoimmune disease.

Answers were further augmented by experience and tips from @1950 and @jilliemo12345. @helent, you were right to call out the acronym MCTD. It stands for Mixed Connective Tissue Disorder. We have a few discussion about MCTD and UCTD here:
- MCTD (Mixed Connective Tissue Disease) https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mctd-mixed-connective-tissue-disease/
- UCTD: Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/uctd/
- How do you cope with Mixed Connective Tissue Disease? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mctd-265a2b/

I think @becsbuddy @tsc @marye2 @krcc may wish to add to this discussion.

@mils what are the next steps for you for confirming a diagnosis? Treatment? How are you?

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Replies to "Welcome @mils. What a great question to ask, regardless of the actually autoimmune condition one has...."

Hi Colleen, thank you for your interest, I am currently waiting on some blood work. The rheumatologist says I have to get blood work done every three months to see if everything is stable or if I developed some specific antibodies that will change my diagnosis into a more defined one. It looks like, their goal for now is to make me live a better life, free of pain or at least with as less pain as possible. So far, after one month of Prednisone and then 4 months of plaquenil, they were able to do that. With this new flare, I was thrown out "balance" both mentally and physically so I am planning to go see the doctor again, not sure if they will change my treatment. Since I have written my post here, my symptoms have improved on their on, after taking some prednisolone and some advil, but they still come back here and there. I hope my experience helps others with UCTD, since I have noticed that there is very few information online.