Tumid Lupus with SLE Symptoms?

Posted by seesawer @seesawer, Apr 8, 2017

Hi! A couple years ago I visited the Mayo Clinic, which ultimate led to a biopsy and tumid lupus diagnosis.

Since then, I've also gotten the SLE label. While I don't have positive ANA, I have every SLE symptom under the sun (including tendinitis, painful joints, R.A.-like nodules and deformed finger joints, MS-like symptoms/spasms/muscle weakness, hair loss, 0 in both eyes on Shrimer's test, tachycardia/flushing, some high creatinine readings, history of colitis/lower G.I. bleeding, vasculitis bruising, looped capillaries, blah blah blah).

I've done CellCept (which helped a lot but caused me to puke all the time and lose 50 pounds). I also (miraculously enough) qualified for Benlysta and still go for once-a-month infusions. It doesn't last as long as I'd like, but it's changed my life. (I literally live for the first 2 weeks of the Benlysta cycle). 🙂

I understand tumid lupus is fairly rare, and that only 5-10% of tumid lupus patients have SLE symptoms (and almost none of those have positive ANA). I'm wondering if anyone else out there fits this profile? If so, I'd love to compare notes. Thanks!

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@johnbishop

@ejlm, I think Rochester Mayo Clinic Campus would be a great choice. Are you able to ask your doctor for a referral? I'm not sure you need one but it may be helpful if they can send your medical records ahead. You can also call for an appointment yourself. If you need any Rochester or Mayo Clinic visit related information, please tag me (@johnbishop) and I will see if I can help you. I've lived in the area a long time and am a Rochester Mayo Clinic patient.

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Thank you John, I do truely appreciate that. Today the swelling is out of my hand, which is wonderful still a lot of muscle fatigue but thankfully I just let my hands be yesterday. When it happened in my feet that is a bit harder and took longer to heal....its like any impact at all and it just goes crazy. Thank goodness my kids are older and past the Lego stage...lol

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The only other helpful anything is that it seems my thyroid levels refuse to stabilize. I am constantly jumping between dosages of 137 and 150. I was diagnosed in 2008, so 12 years now of thyroid medications consistently. 125 has been my lowest dose and 250 my highest over these 12 years. Right now my face rash is very pronounced, once stress comes down it will fade a little and the deep purple centers will go away.

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@ejlm

Hi,
I guess I will start from what I know
First I was a very healthy kid. I have had a lot of ongoing stressors, but healthy. I will try to put stress in some sort of light. Trauma stresses of murder of a close one, molestation with crazy mind games and physical abuse. 3 rapes, abusive relationship in high school. Then another. Young pregnancy which I was abused during and went into early labor. Went toxic after a beating and was induced. Three more pregnancies all with pre eclampsia. Extreme abuse in the home and was eventually left homeless and a childcare provider suffocated my son. Went from all that to single mother of four little kids trying to go to college....ended up joining the military was released due to unknown medical issues (will swing back to that). Married again, very tragic end to that. Married again was working long hours found out person was abusing my kids and snorting cocaine. Now I am married again and we have had some very big downs. Son ended up in crazy treatment, so much court, husband is now in rehab for alcoholism. Really it never flipping stops. Quit my job trying to deal with all of this and having flare up after flare up of who the heck knows what.
Ok keys here for medical.
During pregnancies I was put on thyroid meds for the fourth one. Small dose and never followed up on it.
In the military I was top notch. Had a 4.26 minute mile, weighed 118 lbs. 104 situps in a minute, they called me superstar and not in a bad way. I had extremely high scores across the board and felt amazing.
Then all of a sudden I could not hold any vitamin D or iron. I looked like I was gang raped by a group of linemen. Girls who had to shower with me left in tears. I was a walking bruise.....deep awful bruises. It was grotesque looking. My abdomen, inner thighs, legs, back, breasts, arms. Everything was a bruise. I couldn't stand or sit, I would just fall over. Writing in class would become eligible and would fall off my chair.
Fast forward, took a discharge but no one really could figure it out. Eventually I began really struggling with my weight and I was running miles a day and eating a bowl of cream of wheat. I was drop dead tired all the time and was always a wreck. Eventually a doctor tested my thyroid levels. Cant remember what they were but was put on a dose of 250. Not 25, 250. When I picked it up from the pharmacy he looked at me like I was insane. Tested positive for hashimotos and the story of silly bull has continued.
I started developing these weird bruises on my legs. They started as a deep insane itch and would turn into months long itchy bruises.
Always fighting swelling.
I have a huge butterfly rash across my face that becomes very prominent during times of stress or flare ups.
I get crazy joint pain that makes no sense.
My hands sometimes just stop working and I drop things.
This summer the bottoms of my feet just went crazy. My doctor called them lupus feet and sent me to an endo that basically laughed me out of the room and said it's just your hashimoto's. All of a sudden fibromyalgia showed up on my chart? Mmmmk. I did nothing and my feet swelled like balloons. I think I stepped on an acorn, not sure. Today I closed a door and half my hand blew up. Like painful awful hell. I shut a door, that was it. I have been super stressed and I know I have been having a lot of crazy fatigue and joint issues but this was flat out all the tissue in my hand became hard and huge and painful. Not thumb, just the four fingers and top of my palm. Now I am getting the swelling down and I have a weird bruising that is all washed/spread out and now my palms have dots that have an insanely deep itch like what I get on my legs and what happened to my feet over the summer. Other than that just sheer fatigue. Especially in my shoulders and arms.
I understand stress causes flare ups but I cant find anything that says this is a hashimoto's type flare. I am tired of fighting with it.
My weight is blah and I have been amazingly infertile since my last child. Not complaining but always found it strange. Also doctors have always said the same thing to me. If you dont want any more children why do you care....well for someone who had four pregnancies between 98 and 04 just seems a little strange to go from Being laughed at for being overly fertile to not fertile at all.
Only other thing is at 39 I have been told I am most possibly in early onset menopause. Just keeps getting better.
Other randoms I now have migraines...I had a clean scan a year and a half ago, then I was scanned again about a half year ago for continuing migraines and a mass that had developed in my face. They said it was a weird cluster (I call it weird) of veins that have bunched together near my jaw? I thought it may have been the cause of migraines but they said no, just a thing that happens.
I do not mean to sound crabby....lol. my sarcasm can be a little off putting, but I really just want to get to a good place and not sure how when I dont know what I am up against.

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@ejlm
Hello, again. From what you have described, you could very well be in early menopause. You might think about seeing a gynecologist to see what treatment they can offer. Menopause is always a difficult time for women. If you can deal with those symptoms, it might make everything else more manageable. Find a female gynecologist, if you can. Does this sound like a good place to start?

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@ddfinn

Oh and biopsy was positive for tumid lupus.

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I was just diagnosed with tumid lupus

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@debbybundy

I was just diagnosed with tumid lupus

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Hello @debbybundy, Welcome to Connect, an online community where patients and caregivers share their experiences, find support and exchange information with others.

Are you able to share a little more about your symptoms or if you were started on any treatment?

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@johnbishop

Hello @debbybundy, Welcome to Connect, an online community where patients and caregivers share their experiences, find support and exchange information with others.

Are you able to share a little more about your symptoms or if you were started on any treatment?

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I mostly have the skin rashes. Started on paquinil almost a month ago. I do get bad joint and muscle pains. I also had a herniated disc removed in 2018. Not sure if my spine problems are a reason..thank you for your reply

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@whyus

<p>About 3 weeks ago my dermatologist took a skin biopsy. The pathology report came back as a definitive diagnosis of Systemic lupus erythematosus (LUPUS)</p><p>I can't ses an RA Specialist until September. But I just wondered if any of you have experienced any of these complaints of mine:<br />(1) Tired. I could sleep all day<br />(2). Burning/itching under my skin. It feels like ants or something. But scratching does no good at all.<br />(3) have trouble sleeping.<br />ThNks for sharing with me.</p>

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On recently did I learn I have Lupus (SLE). This news is not welcome at any age. I am 77 and am in good condition, except as I expressed to my internist “just lupus”.

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@whyus

<p>About 3 weeks ago my dermatologist took a skin biopsy. The pathology report came back as a definitive diagnosis of Systemic lupus erythematosus (LUPUS)</p><p>I can't ses an RA Specialist until September. But I just wondered if any of you have experienced any of these complaints of mine:<br />(1) Tired. I could sleep all day<br />(2). Burning/itching under my skin. It feels like ants or something. But scratching does no good at all.<br />(3) have trouble sleeping.<br />ThNks for sharing with me.</p>

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Hi

Welcome to the club. Did you know there are just over 1.6 million of us and did you know if you took 10 people with Lupus and put them in a room there would be 9 women and 1 man. So I am upfront I am the 1 man. Have to tell you before going any further, I am proud to be part of such a select group.

I am definitely not an expert nor do I have any answers. I have been diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus [SLE] for short. In my studies I have learned we don’t know very much. I can say I at the senior age of 77 will die with it NOT FROM IT.

The biggest challenges I’ve experienced is:

Fatigue

Sensitivity in my hands and fingers

A bluish/red discoloration of my hands and fingers

Lower back pain [from merely noticeable to extreme]

I have practiced yoga for over 20 years. I have taken Lupus on as a challenge. At an earlier point in my life (age 8) I was given a set of York Barbells. I spent the better part of the next 12 years lifting weights.

I am no expert but I have some ideas on movement that may help you and all my other Sisters and Brothers in this Elite Unit.

Namaste 🙏🏻

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@kuma

Hi

Welcome to the club. Did you know there are just over 1.6 million of us and did you know if you took 10 people with Lupus and put them in a room there would be 9 women and 1 man. So I am upfront I am the 1 man. Have to tell you before going any further, I am proud to be part of such a select group.

I am definitely not an expert nor do I have any answers. I have been diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus [SLE] for short. In my studies I have learned we don’t know very much. I can say I at the senior age of 77 will die with it NOT FROM IT.

The biggest challenges I’ve experienced is:

Fatigue

Sensitivity in my hands and fingers

A bluish/red discoloration of my hands and fingers

Lower back pain [from merely noticeable to extreme]

I have practiced yoga for over 20 years. I have taken Lupus on as a challenge. At an earlier point in my life (age 8) I was given a set of York Barbells. I spent the better part of the next 12 years lifting weights.

I am no expert but I have some ideas on movement that may help you and all my other Sisters and Brothers in this Elite Unit.

Namaste 🙏🏻

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Here is the latest. The back pain I was experiencing really was my piriformis in my right hip. I go to Virginia Mason Franciscan Health (VMFH) in Seattle. Yesterday morning what I then attributed to Lupus was so painful I could hardly get out of bed. I immediately thought go to the ER. Thankfully my wonderful Sally reminded me the last time she went to the ER for the pain she was experiencing from Pancreatic Cancer, she spent the better part of 4 of the day there and learned nothing. This is not a criticism of the ER but mainly an observation of how slammed our medical system is. So what I did was go to the Urgent Care at the VMFH here in Edmonds. It’s only a couple of miles from my home. While they couldn’t check me in until 9 they have a very nice waiting room. At 9 I checked in and was shortly in the exam room with a young doctor. I explained what I was experiencing. Hmm she said I sounds to me like your piriformis. Voila, so it’s Excedrin 3x a day, heating pad and ice packs and stretching (yoga) poses.

I am going into detail to simply let everyone know there are many ways to deal with the obstacles we encounter daily.

I still have SLE and I am very proud being a member of our Elite club. 🙏🏻

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I have MCTD and Tumid Lupus. I’m having the worst time to get the tumid lupus treatment everything we have tried has not worked. So many creams and medications. My dermatologist said this is the most stubborn case she has ever seen. Is there anyone who might have a treatment plan to help with this?

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