The Bloodwork

(April 7, 2008)

Today we got most of the blood work back. I'm going to try to make this as easy to understand as possible...quite frankly I'm rather lost myself! I have a ton of windows and Google searches open, so as I read through those I'll probably comb through this and correct my mistakes.

We are almost positive that I have some form of rheumatoid arthritis.

What is rheumatoid, you ask? I'd like to know too!
Rheumatoid is apparently something "involving joints, soft tissues and allied conditions of connective tissues. In the term rheumatology, rheuma means 'that which flows as a river or stream' and 'ology' means the 'study of'".

This means more bloodwork and a specialist. Rheumatoid, according to this Wikipedia article, comes in many different packages. Fifteen different packages, to be exact. However, my doctor says I am most likely to have Sjögren’s Syndrome or something to do with Lupus or Scleroderma. (Since this time, Lupus and Scleroderma have been determined highly unlikely.)

Woah, wait. What the heck is Sjögren’s Syndrome?
Sjögren’s Syndrome attacks the moisture tissues such as tear and salivary glands. It can progress to the point of lunching on your liver and such, but I doubt that if I have this it is that serious.

Okay. Now. Speak very slowly: What is Lupus?
Lupus appears, among other variables, to like piggy-backing Sjögren’s Syndrome, ironically. Lupus is rather scary--it can cause kidney disease, depression, seizures, etc.etc. A lot of the symptoms sound familiar--arthritis-like pain in one or more joints, persistent fatigue; and hair loss.

Scleroderma sounds like throw up.
I know, I know. This is another scary one. One of the factors is Raynaud's phenomenon (or Syndrome), which we are certain I have. (More on Raynaud's Syndrome below.) It looks like I have a lot of these symptoms, too, but I'm not going to talk about them because it's a little frightening and somewhat gross. Besides which all this research is starting to make me very nervous, so I'm just going to skim the rest of it. Suffice to say that it's very possible I am at least in the early stages of this, and the worst that happens is I have heart/lung failure (among other things).

Raynaud's Syndrome
We are positive I have Raynaud's Syndrome. This is when your feet or hands turn cold, pale and blue in response to emotional uproar, heat or cold. I've had this for years. My feet are lovingly referred to as "dead people feet".

Along with all these possibilities is the chance of me having another autoimmune disease on top of it all. We're waiting for those results. (Hopefully they'll be in tomorrow.) Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder, by the way.

Autoimmune? Like, no electronics allowed?
Autoimmune diseases are when your immune system attacks and kills your own tissue, which means anything from tissue between the joints to your organs. Type 1 Diabetes (which my sister, Laura, has) is caused when your antibodies (the autoimmune released things that kill things) attack your pancreas.) Autoimmune diseases enjoy living with many people in my family.

Feeling educated? Feeling like your brain is going to explode? Me too!