Lupus Forum - Not Sure What to Do...

Hi, i'm a male in my 30s. My father has lupus (the kind that affects the skin) and over the years i've thought I might have it too but the more severe kind.

However whenever i'd bring it up with a doctor I was told no, it's not hereditary.

Well recently I had a skin problem (a painful red blotch on my arm) and while trying to calm my fears about whether it was cancerous or not I decided to google lupus and when I did I came across a little tidbit that said that "it is suspected that people inherit something from their parents that predisposes them to develop lupus".

So now i'm back to thinking that lupus is again a primary suspect behind the list of unexplained medical problems that i've experienced throughout my life.

My first question is this - would you recommend going through my primary doctor (who unfortunately i'm pretty sure is convinced i'm a hypochondriac) or going directly to a specialist? If so, what kind of specialist?

Also should I set up an appointment right away or should I wait until my symptoms reach their peak (or thereabouts)?

Finally any advice on what I should say to the doctor? Should I go through my whole medical history (see below) or should I narrow it down to just a few major items?

Here are some of the symptoms in case that would be helpful:
* bouts of chest pains going back to childhood along with mouth sores
* often have felt lethargic for no apparent reason
* a weird thing sometimes occurs where when I swallow my throat makes a funny noise, like the noise of a growling stomach..This has continued on and off over the years but it has been rather loud and consistent over the past week (i think maybe it gets worse in cold weather)
* whenever i've gone bowling during the last 10 years or so (about 3 or 4 times) I can't make it through half a game without my fingers killing me, no matter what size ball or what size the holes
* have become very sensitive to sunlight and it seems like I always feel sick if i'm exposed to the sun for any extended period
* don't know if this could be relevant to lupus or not but a couple years ago I started having numbness problems in that I would wake up occasionally with the left side of my head feeling numb (i've always had a general feeling of weakness around the left temple area, going back to at least my early teen years)
* related to that perhaps is that when I was in college I had ringing in my ears and the ent prescribed lipoflavonoid which had the following side effects: joint pains and creaking, short-term memory loss and loss of concentration, shortness of breath, and more of a weak feeling on the left side of my head - as though the tissues or fat cells (or whatever) surrounding the artery suddenly expanded and constricted the flow of blood to the brain...In short it was like all the symptoms I had in the past suddenly become much more pronounced (and no, it didn't help the ringing :p)
* i've had blotches or lesions on my skin which seemed to be a harbinger of pain in that general area (for instance in the recent skin problem that I mentioned at the beginning of this post it was followed by a throbbing pain throughout my left bicep that would sometimes last for hours...And even more recently i've had a similar-looking place appear on my chest and there has been pricklings of pain through that area as well)
* a year ago I had red pinpricks crop up on my skin (mostly on the back of my hands) and it made my skin there feel as though it were on fire for a short time
* generally whenever I have an onset of whatever it is I have, the pain travels gradually throughout my body, as though doing as much damage as it can in one spot before moving on to another - for instance, maybe a few days or so of pangs on the left side of my chest, then the right, then maybe down to the stomach, the kidneys, etc.

Sorry about the length of this - it went longer than I had intended. Anyway mostly I guess i'm just curious to see what you would do if you were me (i.E. Would you see a dermatologist, an internist, a general practitioner?).

Thank you for reading this and look forward to any suggestions/tips you might have.