The Visit with the Rheumatologist

My visit with the Rheumatologist finally came. I sat with her and told her what had been going on and why I was referred. She reviewed the lab work and said that she would need to run additional lab tests to get more answers. Labs specific to autoimmune conditions and while I was not having any symptoms, really, she said that it could be anything, possibly, or nothing. She said that some of the tests may take a little time to get results back. I had no questions at this time and left to get the labs drawn.

I have always been good with needles and sat still and calmly as they drew multiple tubes of blood. I returned home and again went down the rabbit hole of Dr. Google to read more and more about all of the autoimmune conditions out there. Lupus, Type 1 Diabetes, Hashimotos, Addisions Disease, MS, Myasthenia Gravis, Rheumatoid Arthritis....the list kept going on. Some of these sounded absolutely dreadful to live with and life changing to live with. I waited patiently for the lab results to come in. While I tried not to worry, the mind is pretty powerful and I could not help but think that I was allowing my thoughts and fears to manifest some of the symptoms of these different conditions. The follow up visit could not come fast enough - I needed to know the results to put my mind at ease and move forward. The waiting game can be so intense.

About a week later, I was alerted on my phone to the lab results. I quickly logged into my medical record to review. Everything looked good (from the non-clinical eye) with the exception of one, where my results showed positive for Sjogren's. My follow up with the Rheumatologist would be soon after, so I tried not to worry about anything, but felt that maybe we found our answer. I was keeping all of this internally and to myself - not wanting to worry anyone with the possibilities.

My follow up visit came and I sat with the Rheumatologist. She explained that everything looked good and that the only abnormality was the Sjogren's test that I did test positive for. However, she said that I was asymptomatic - not exhibiting any of the common symptoms of Sjogren's so she did not recommend any medication at this time. I asked about potential medications should I become symptomatic and she explained that there were a few options, but that we could cross that bridge if we needed to.

I felt like I finally had answers. This was the reason why things had been off in my labs. This was it. Or so I thought.