Aggie,

I have Undifferentiated connective tissue disease. It was diagnosed in 2003 because I have loads of autoimmune symptoms, but my test results are inconclusive.

One thing I would suggest is making sure you get a copy of your lab results. My doctors would use the terms "normal" and then I would look at the lab results and see that some of the tests were borderline or slightly outside of normal -- and one rheumatologist would call it "normal" and another one would call it "inconclusive".

In my case, what happened was that my primary care doctor looked at all the lab results I had copies of, and even though several tests were on the high or low end of normal, and other tests were slightly outside of the normal range -- it was looking at all of the results together as a pattern instead of looking at each test indivudually that caused the doctors to see that there was a problem.

Even though my lab results were "normal" when someone looked at each test individually, they were abnormal when they looked at all the test results together and saw the whole picture.

So, I learned to always get a copy of any/all lab tests and I learned to make sure that one of my doctors looked at the lab results as a whole picture.

I hope that the Plaquanil helps -- and make sure you listen to the doctor and get your eye exams done on a regular basis while taking the Plaquanil. Even though it's a very very rare side effect, it's important to be on the safe side

Take care,
Liz