Dear Claudia's Mum: I personally think it means that you have now started down the road of trying to logically come up with answers to questions that are unanswerable. All I know is that thyroid autoimmune disease is localized, and other auto immune diseases like RA are systemic. You have a two-fold disease process to work through which will conflict in its answers to your questions.
You are now facing what every compassionate fellow sufferer in here endures on a daily basis: uncertainty. The medical doctors have no clue, no answers, no cure, no ideas, no secret potion, no logic, no help, and certainly no time to spend on you, they are too busy with "the next patient".
You are going to have to do it yourself by spending the precious little quality time you have left doing your own research, sift through the bs on BBS like this one, and try to find one medical doctor (not the endo or the rheumy) who is going to stick with you through thick and thin, to the very end, through the daily changes in symptoms, the infections, the flares, the sudden emergencies, the chronic, debilitating, and unending process known as autoimmune disease.
Learn all you can about eating healthy, find an exercise regime that works for you, get plenty of rest, make big decisions about cutting out the stress in your life, love your family, and begin to realize you are in for the long haul. Good luck and take care ~~ Cathy
Hello
I have been told following my blood tests that I have tested negative for rheumatoid factor but positive for rheumatoid arthritis although only mildly. What does this actually mean? The receptionist who read these notes out to me on the phone didn't understand what it meant. Just wondering if anyone can enlighten me so I can decide whether I need to see the doctor who doesn't seem to want to see me. What I actually went to be tested for was in connection with my thyroid (I'm hypo) and possible Sjogren's.
Many thanks