MCTD: What helps?

Posted by andromeda5845 @andromeda5845, Feb 6, 2025

Hello. I’m a 49 year old woman living with pain and weird symptoms(hair loss, GI symptoms, dry eyes, pain everywhere) every single day. I’ve been to several specialists with different opinions for the better part of four years. I had a positive ANA ordered my gastro and was told
Not to worry about it. Symptoms continued and was finally referred to a rheumatologist a few weeks ago. I have a positive RPN but it’s only 1. Not sure if this means I’m not positive or if it needs to be higher to be considered positive. The pain in my body has made me quit my career and I’m presently barely working. My apt to go over labs and X-rays is tomorrow. Does anyone have any insight on this? I’m trying to prep myself for this apt and what to expect. I feel so frustrated it’s taken this long to get here and wonder if the damage to my body is going to continue to worsen if docs don’t take this seriously. I went from running and every working every day to a body I don’t even know anymore. Any insight is so appreciated.

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celia16 | @celia16 | 1 day ago

In reply to @jgk177 "@celia16 there are so many things to consider when taking pharmaceuticals. Until this year I was..." + (show)

@jgk177

@celia16 there are so many things to consider when taking pharmaceuticals. Until this year I was not taking anything. And I did everything I could to avoid taking anything.. but I have come to realize I won't be getting any awards for stoic suffering and being able to say I am not taking anything regularly but I feel like dog sh*t most of the time.. its not something to be proud of! Losing 100 pounds is amazing.. that takes major dedication and focus! I would say if you are interested to speak to other folks with your profile who take GLP's and see what their experiences have been and then of course your health care provider. One thing I can say is with my aversion to nausea, I was determined to do everything and anything I could not to feel nauseated when taking Wegovy. The Dr said "everyone gets nauseous".. not me!! ha ha. I was SO careful the first few days, I ate about 4 tablespoons of food at a time, took only tiny sips of water and pretty much made sure everything I ate was blended. I'll admit I went a little far with that BUT I never got nauseous and never threw up. I just started my second level of meds (they increase the dosage every 4 weeks for 4 months until you get to a "full dose") and I was a little queasy last night when I went to bed. You are supposed to leave about 4 hours between your last bit of food and sleep, otherwise the risk of nausea and or reflux gets high.. I was a little careless and left a little less than 3 hours, and I felt it. I also experience extreme fatigue in the first 48 hours after a dose (when it's my first at that dosage level) but that's normal. These drugs are incredible for their anti-inflammatory effects and they also 100% quiet "food noise" that most people don't even know they had. I do have some aversions to foods usually the first few days. If I'm being honest today pretty much all I have eaten is non-dairy ice cream. I'm usually MUCH more careful and mindful to consume whole foods, that are low in sugar, not oily and not "junk", but because I just upped my dose less than 48 hours ago, I gave myself some grace today. And I'm not eating more than 1/3 - 1/2 of a cup of ice cream at a time.. Tomorrow I will go back to my usual whole food based eating. In the meantime, I'm ok with what I'm doing because I have never done anything (eating ice cream through the day) like this before and I know it's "one day only"!!

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@jgk177 , so glad that’s helping you! I try to avoid meds unless necessary, but I take what my doctors prescribe. I have a friend who had type 2 diabetes and she lost a huge amount of weight taking Ozempic. Her blood sugar is now normal. She still takes the med though.

I will take a GLP1 if I need to. I think I can get the few pounds I have to go without it though. I am interested in the anti inflammatory factor. I’ll consider that for sure. I struggled with constipation for several years and finally got normal. Would hate to revisit that. My friend says she must take fiber to deal with constipation. So…..idk.

I suppose I have to weigh it out. I also want to go on HRT….I know….controversial for sure, but I’m reading new views on it.

Please post on your progress.

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