Dani

Joelf, I understand having to monitor my sense of humor around my mother. It has created quite a few misunderstandings. Kathy D. I also thank you for the giggles.

Pain, like disease, is relative. It makes no sense to compare your pain to mine or to hers or to his. The pain I feel is only better or worse than the pain I personally have known. I can and do emphasize or sympathize with you, but I cannot compare levels of pain with you. Like the others who have posted, I understand well-meaning people sometimes say silly things. I am guilty of it myself. I do wish your physician had given you a real answer to your question, though. I, for one, truly would like to know the answer after having read a bit of your story. I can't even imagine how much more so this is true for you. Dbig

Thank you so much! I appreciate the welcomes, links, and inputs you shared. I truly hope you get as much from as you give to these projects. I have been reading the forum posts and see a lot of responses from you. Again, thank you.

Hi. Autoimmune diseases run in my family. So after being diagnosed with Raynauds,fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, IBS, arthritis, peripheral polyneuropathy, and a host of other disorders, it was not a surprise that my bloodwork came back positive for scleroderma antibodies and inflammation. My oral surgeon, who I am seeing for possible oral lichen planus, also viewed the initial results and asked if I knew I have scleroderma, By the way, I have also started bruising quite easily and am very slow to heal. My general practitioner sent me to a rheumatologist who repeated the bloodwork but also ordered other blood tests I do not understand. I viewed the results. The scleroderma and inflammation results are almost identical to the first time. However, I received a call from the rheumatologist's office saying that the results are negative for scleroderma but show inflammation due to neuropathy. When I asked why these results rate as a negative but the same results from my general practitioner were listed as positive, I was told that false positives are possible and that I would be sent for x-rays. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? Would you please share any insights, if so. Thank you