They diagnosed my ctd through blood work. I thought I only had Sjogrens and then went to a new rheumatologist who ran multiple blood tests which showed I had undifferentiated connective tissue disease. He said its an overlap disease consisting of Lupus, vasculitis and Sjogrens as the primary in my case.
I've had rotator cuff tears but that is all. Have you been checked for Ehleros Danlos disease? Not sure if I am pronouncing it correctly but it is a genetic disease that can make aneurysms dissect prematurely?? At Mayo they checked me for it because it's genetic and can cause problems with aneurysms.