Lupus Forum - Rhuemy Visist Today, Even More Confused

I went to my visit with my rhuematologist today and I must say it feels like baby steps. She questioned me about the prescriptions that she prescribed the last time that I was there and I told her that they ( naprosyn 500mg and elavil 10mg) provided little help except for relieving some of the muscle ache. I also told her that I did'nt take them for this past week because I started experiencing severe edema about three weeks now and I wanted to decipher whether it was the medication or not. It is not the medication, I explained that I must be having water retention with the swelling and the weight that i've gained. Within a month i've gained 30 pounds, this is rediculous. She prescribed water pills to see if this will help with the swelling.

She examined me and found that there was definitely swelling and that I had very little pain from the fibromyalgia. She looked at my blood work and said that there is very little change from the first set of test that were taken by my gp.

1st test
ana 1:40 speckled
anti ds dna 14.0
rf 34

second test
ana 1:40 speckled
anti ds dna 12.0
rf 33
esr high 41
complement 4 high 49.0
complement total low100

she said because they came back consistently positive within the same range that she is diagnosising me with mctd (i thought anti ds dna is specific for sle Confused

). She claims that I have mild ra and still believes that I definitely have fibromyalgia as well as raynauds. She also prescribed plaquenil 200mg and raised the dose of elavil to 25mg. She also advised that I should stay out of the sun, keep off my feet and keep them elavated and see her in 8 weeks ( 2 months Shocked

). I'm not sure what to make of this, but I will be getting a second opinion on monday july 19th when I go to nyu hospital for joint diseases. I don't know, go figure!!!