Sounds like it, with your families history it's most likely. Find a good rheumatologist to help you get diagnosed properly with what ever it may be.

Yes thank you

You asked if this ‘sounded like a lupus diagnosis’ which is why I was explaining what the ANA is in my comment. I’m sure you have many symptoms of disease but I was trying to convey how difficult a process it is to get an official lupus diagnosis.

A positive ANA can happen for a variety of reasons. It can show in healthy people, older people, from infections, cancer or autoimmune diseases from Hashimotos, Sjorgens, Lupus and more. So a positive ANA isn’t enough to get you any diagnosis. If the ANA titer is high enough, it indicates to a doctor that there is something going on that needs to be investigated. So it is often the 1st step in the discovery process

Lupus has very specific criteria that has to be met. For instance, low levels of RBC, WBC or platelets are 1 of the many criteria to meet but just having low levels isn’t enough. They must also meet a threshold. Platelets are considered low when under 150,000 but to meet the criteria for Lupus it must be under 100,000 fro count

Malar rashes are also tricky. Many get a rash but only a very specific rash is considered a true Lupus malar & a biopsy will determine if a certain type of inflammatory evidence is found in the skin.

So while we all might have a list a mile long that points to something like Lupus, when it comes to reaching a diagnosis there is a very high bar to meet and many of the symptoms will be considered ‘of interest’ but disregarded and not counted towards your diagnosis. Many many tests will be done and often repeated and pieces of evidence gathered over time. Sometimes people get “Lucky” and they just happen to be highly symptomatic at the time testing is done and many of the criteria are met and a diagnosis is quick. That’s not the norm though and most who experience that quick diagnosis have severe complications causing kidney, heart or lung problems which confirm the disease

I’m not saying this downplay any of your symptoms! I’m merely trying to offer some insight into the complexity of diagnosing autoimmune diseases since many get very discouraged during the process

I do hope you get answers

This helped a lot!

This site is the best as I say we all have so much in common but no two of us are the same. When I first got diagnosed with a positive ANA, my pcp sent me to a rheumatologist at John Hopkins in Baltimore, MD. She explained to me they knew from my blood work that I had an autoimmune disease. She said picture a big tree trunk with many, many tree branches and each branch is an autoimmune disease. As you get older, you will be diagnosed with more and more autoimmune diseases with the blood work that shows many things, but it may take a long, long time. Please know it is not in your head, but autoimmune diseases are complex and it takes a lot for them to be figured out because no two people are the same. She said as I got older the branches names of the disease I have would slowly be revealed, which has been the case. First Lupus SLE, then RA, then Mixed Connective Tissue Disease, then APS, the MVP, Type 2 Diabetes, Sjogren's, Fibromyalgia, Peripheral Neuropathy that can be caused by Sjogren's syndrome and/or Type 2 Diabetes, then Dupuytren's contracture, the immune system is involved, but not exactly like an autoimmune disease. It has been a journey with many twists in the road for sure.