Is ther anyone else like me?????? I had a baby and got an infection. I took Levaquin and immediatly became weak, fogy minded, got horrible rashes, joint and muscle pain and chronic achilles tendonitis I though I was dying, Thy did a test and found my ANA was + 1 : 180. Then they decided I had lupus until those antibodied came back normal by now I am worse and my ana is at 1:640. On and on we go Last check it wass 1;1260 and I still feel like dog poop. Any ideaS????????

mommyjen

try also asking on the medications forum here at neuroTalk in case mrsD or someone there might have some insight for you on this

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forumdisplay.php?f=72

sorry to hear what you are going through

Mommyjen, I'm sorry to hear of all that you are going through. I don't know a great deal about lupus or the antibody test, but as far as the 2 autoimmune diseases I have had, Graves' Disease, and Myasthenia Gravis, my Graves' didn't show up in blood work for about 10 years and I am negative for the MG antibodies. I did find the following info on lupus antibodies after a very quick search: "How common are antiphospholipid antibodies? Like other autoantibodies in systemic lupus, antiphospholipid antibodies can come and go in an individual. There are many ways to measure these antibodies, and different methods may not always give the same result.
These antibodies were first discovered in people who have lupus, but it is not necessary to have lupus to have these antibodies. In fact, in most studies, more than 50 percent of people with these antibodies do not have lupus. We do not yet understand why a person's immune system begins to manufacture these antibodies."
I don't know if this is the type of antibody they checked for, but I think it shows that a negative doesn't necessarily mean you are free of the condition. You might ask one of your doctors if it possible to have lupus without the antibodies, or if it is possible for the antibodies to develop later.
Hugs,

Hi MommyJen..
I had an icident dec 2005 where my ana titre was 1:160 but it went back down again no explanations.. They had thought I had Lupus as well and indeed my sister has had lupus for 25 years.. but further tests ruled it out in me as I thought it would, I have RSD and it was my sympathetic system was playin with my autoimune system again.

hugs,
Sandra

similar experience, mine all started in my pregnacy of my 3rd child, my on symptom was hives and being tired.. after bub was born the hives went away, still very tired, also turned out i had cervical cancer,,, all is wonderful with that though caught it early, but still very tired,,
and then the hives came back, had blood test and they found i have protien in my blood,, am waiting to see the immunoligist{ ?}
need some help because dont seem to be getting many answer, are auto immune disease treatable or easy to manage.
sally

I just cannot tolerate Levaquin. I had terrible cramps in my legs when I took it. When I stopped it they went away.

If you do a search on Levaquin you will find many people have difficulty with taking it.

It is one of the side effects.

This is not considered a major side effect of the drug but I don't know who the heck they tested??? I have friends who've been on it and swore they felt like they were going to die.

Tootsie

I know that an ANA Titer can go high and then go normalized with any immune disorder, my last was was also 1:180, the time before that it was 1:120, and before that they were usually fine, lupus is very difficult to diagnosis as there is not one specific test to test for the disease, it's usually based on symptoms overtime and a hosts of blood tests overtime. I've been at this for 5 years already, and it's just in the last year that my tests are becoming more positive, I would always come and go with symptoms, I'd get one symptom and that would go away and then I would come down with another.
DaisyMae