Bad Things Can Happen to Good People II

At my first visit with the rheumatologist, I learned I had what is known as true Raynaud’s syndrome, identified by abnormal looping blood vessels at the base of my nails. This explained the discoloration and numbness that would appear when my hands and feet were exposed to the cold. My cheeks were pink and the doctor believed I had a faint malar rash. My joints were very loose and I was considered to have hypermobility syndrome. Pin pricks with a needle suggested some loss of sensation in my feet. An EMG was ordered of my legs and more blood work followed.

I tested positive for mixed connective tissue disease. I also tested weakly positive for antiphospholipid syndrome, suggestive of a potential clotting disorder, a possible explanation for the placental abruption in my third pregnancy. I began Plaquenil, which helped with my stiffness. I visited a hematologist to evaluate if an aspirin a day was adequate treatment for the antiphospholipid syndrome and he felt it was. At the same time, he noted a red lacy rash on my legs.

By August, the diagnosis of Lupus was added to mixed connective tissue disease.
My neurologist felt the daily headaches were migraines, though they were always in both temples, occurred daily, began with the other unusual symptoms, and were not nearly as severe as migraines I had experienced in my teenage years and also when I was pregnant with my first child. The loss of color vision was attributed to migraine auras.

By November, I was experiencing loss of feeling in parts of my face that would last up to two hours at a time. When walking across the gym at Mikayla’s school, I suddenly felt as though I had been stabbed with a knife in my abdomen. Appendicitis was ruled out and a series of tests run. Amylase levels were elevated. I had been experiencing early satiation after just a few bites of food since early in the summer, but suddenly, eating was a truly painful experience. The pain in the abdomen would start minutes after I began eating and would last for hours. A colonoscopy suggested potential vasculitis. I had a cardiac ultrasound that suggested possible clots in the heart.