Where do you get pain which is caused... - St Thomas Lupus T...
Where do you get pain which is caused by your lupus?
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Touchwood; I haven't had a flare-up for 6 years, but at the outset the S.L.E affected just about every joint in my body including my jaw. I've since had two knee replacements so I hope that takes two joints out of the equation. At present I get niggles which travel round the joints in turn. My left elbow is the current victim. Apparently the Lupus has been responsible for the loss of the cartilage in that joint.
Well that's great no flares! Knees seem to be the area that pretty much all patients have problems with. I now have osteo-arthritis in my knees so I never know whether it's lupus or that causing the pain. I also had jaw pain and spent £500 on unnecessary dental work as the dentist thought it was a dental problem and never once said go to your GP. It was before my diagnosis so I believed what the dentist told me.
Have you found, though, that whatever happens to you medically, whether visiting your GP or a hospital Specialist, Lupus becomes a convenient peg to hang the diagnosis on and it's not taken any further? I have.
Yes definitely. We have to be very careful of that though. A patient told me she'd had a back problem and she decided herself it was lupus, it actually turned out to be a slipped disc!