ok methotrexate is a heavy duty drug. It can be IV or IM and or pills. This MD was sure I have it even with negative blood tests. She said you CANT say you dont have it until a LIP BIOSPY is done. They take a tiny piece of the inside of your lip, and take a peice of the salivary gland. Even with negative blood tests, it show specific markers of inflammation only seen in sjogrens. A dentist or ENT can perform this operation.

Let me see if I can remember the markers.

SEVERE dry eyes. Severe Dry mouth. Joint pain Blood tests for ANA/ssa/ssb/ige..alla that. severe dry skin (dry enough to cause a thickening), biospy of lip gland, and some salvary test where they measure the actual amount of saliva you make. she said the last one is painful. I promise to look up my notes and come back to correct myself.

She told me it can mimic MS, and can even cause lesions in the brain. Since its an auto immune disease, like MS it can mimic other things. She said its a sister to lupus.

I have severe dry eyes. not bad dry mouth, but its dry. Extremely dry stools. My skin is THICK! and quite dry. doing daily copaxone shots has not been fun. My eyes are so dry that I have dry scarred patches on my cornea and optic nerve. I have sensitive skin, and joint pain in my ankle and hips.

I was just getting used to the idea of MS, and now we are playing the "is this really MS game" I just got through asking my MD if we are really sure this is MS. I dont wanna keep shooting myself everyday on someone's guess. So, I dunno, is this lady crazy? Am I crazy? I surely dont want to go to the hospital for IV methotrexate for 3 to 5 days, and then switch to the pills.

I am so confused, and frustrated. Have I spent two years jabbing myself with meds that may not have been for the disease I actually have. My last MD visit they were quite reassuring that I have MS, and now she is quite reasuring that I have sjogrens.

Crap crap double crap. I told her to make all of those calls herself, to leave me out, and be prepared to convince me once they figure it out. I dont want to know about the fight, I just want to know the outcome. I want hard core proof, not guesses. Lets see what they come up with.

what was the name or url of that message board???