Your body makes to much collagen which causes your muscles to swell and your skin to tighten up. It also attacks your organs. Best thing is to google it, I use the Mayo Clinic lupus site, John Hopkins lupus site or the lupus foundation site. Hope this helps.

I'm just on plaquenil and that has helped quite a bit. If I need more, I take a couple Aleve. My symptoms currently are fatigue, hair loss, Raynaud's phenomenon in hands and feet, swollen wrist and fingers, numbness and tingling sensation in fingers, and morning pain (shoulders and fingers). Warm showers help with the morning pain.

Dr. Michelle Petri, the Lupus Guru at John Hopkins in Baltimore, MD, told me that they don't use the term Mixed Connective Tissue Disease anymore because
Longitudinal studies showed that patients labeled as MCTD because of high titer RNP became defined over time as either lupus or scleroderma; and it was better not to use a diagnostic term that was not stable over time.

I have the high positive RNP (including ANA) blood test and most of the Lupus symptoms. Even with that positive blood test, it's still considerd to be Undifferentiated Connective Tissue Disease, especially if there are no signs of an overlap.

I also have it , it attacked my lungs I have Pulmonary Fibrosis, Morphea, Sjogrens, Raynaud , Syncope , Lupus I have an ugly rash all over my legs, hips and my back and it itches like crazy you have to keep putting moisturizer

Same here Blood tests inconclusive but symptoms ongoing plus fatigue bad. The connective tissue disease they relate to Fibromyalgia. ..
but I think they are all same...lupus.