I was diagnosed with Medically Induced Lupus but I don’t take any meds

Posted by shorey93 @shorey93, Aug 24, 2022

So my primary ran some blood tests for me after some inflammation and pain in my left and right wrist hadn’t improved in three months. The test came back low positive for ANA, negative less than 1 for DS DNA antibodies and a strong positive of 3.1 for histone antibodies. This made my primary think I could have medically induced lupus but I haven’t taken any medication for longer than a week in years and any medication I have taken recently I started after the pain and inflammation began and I stopped it once my COVID symptoms went away. Has anyone had this happen before and can share their experience?

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@t2swim09

You could possibly get around that wait time if you have a walk-in clinic near by and presented, in pain, and with all of your info and get that referral to a rheumatologist from them and then on to Mayo?

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UGH! Mayo wont take me without a "real PCP" AND an diagnosis. That baffled me. The reason I wanted to go to Mayo is because I cant seem to find a doctor familiar enough with what's going on with me to commit and verify a diagnosis and treatment plan. My Allergist is awesome and would give me the Rheumatologist referral but something on paper has to support the referral. I asked the him to run a Myositis panel including the specific anti-bodies for IMNM but he ran a basic panel which did not include the specific HMGCR antibody test so my panel was negative. I think the HMGCR is a send out. I also asked him to run a CK as that measures muscle damage and supports Rhabdomyolysis but the tech ordered a CK-MB which is specific to cardiac muscle damage and would not be elevated in Rhabdo. The CK peaks in about 24 hours and starts to decrease after that. By the time I figured out they ran the wrong test my levels were going down again.
So I gave up for now. I'm just taking prednisone to help control it and riding out the 3 month recovery period and hoping there are no more flare ups. Hurry up and wait UGH!

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@sandyviolet

Are you saying it was a separate condition? Perhaps even brought on by a weakened autoimmune system from having Long Covid?

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I got Covid in Feb 2020 so I've been dealing with all this for 2 1/2 years. Up until recently "Long Covid" was not a ICD diagnosis. My PCP was a condescending jerk about Long Covid. I had to stop relating anything to Covid with my provider. Focus on diagnosing the condition not the cause. When he sent me to the Allergist I used the same approach. These are my symptoms. I've had multiple other problems post covid. I seem to get a new symptom every 3-4 months. Tachycardia and Cardiac Arrhythmias, horrible GI issues for a while there, I rejected 2 permanent dental implants that had been stable for years, weakness, numbness and tingling in my extremities. I didnt lost my taste or smell, I constantly smelled bon fires then burning oil. There's more. Most resolved themselves but required medications to reduce symptoms. I was taking 15+ pills a day for a while. Now I'm down to 3. So yes separate medical conditions but I doubt I would have had any of them if I did not have covid. I've always been a healthy active person. It's possible the statin reaction may not have been as severe without the covid history.
IDK if its a weakened immune system from Covid but I do know there is a large incidence of auto-immune skin disorders diagnosed in Long Haulers. When I looked back at my past medical history I realized I had hives a lot as a child, pityriasis rosea as a teen, seborrheic dermatitis since I was 18 and a few other odd skin related diagnoses as an adult. Most likely I had an underlying auto-immune skin disorder that triggered mast cell issues post covid. Not true MCAS but Mast Cell related.

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Thank you so much for sharing this information. I am having some anxiety around what this could mean for my health long-term. The most concerning, is that little is known, and there are still a large number of professionals that don’t even acknowledge post Covid syndrome. Good luck to you.

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