Which test to find out if my disease is autoimmune?
 

I am a 39 year old woman and I have just been diagnosed with idiopathic PN.

My symptoms started as tingling and numbness. And now 6 weeks later it has progressed to burning pain and muscle twitches. Lightheaded feeling and shaky feeling. I am very scared.

My doctor did a lot of testing and everything came back normal. My B12 is very healthy at 900. And everything else is picture perfect.

The reason I suspect autoimmune is because my symptoms started one month after I had a flu shot. I suspect the flu shot somehow triggered an autoimmune reaction. And I read that once it becomes an autoimmune disease, it will never get better on its own and will always progress. But my doctor doesn't think the vaccine was the reason.

Anything test I can ask for? Anything I can do? Thank you so much in advance.

Welcome to NeuroTalk.

I'd start on some magnesium to see if that would help.
Do not choose OXIDE form, and instead get SlowMag or one of the chelates-- glycinate, gluconate, malate, citrate etc.

SlowMag is affordable at WalMart.
There is also a lotion now, made by Morton.
Morton Epsom lotion also at WalMart. Use only a little on the sites of your issues, and it might help. Or you can do epsom salts baths instead.

Did you get Vit D tested? Some posters here see improvements when Vit D is brought up to a level of 50 or higher.

Doctors don't understand vaccines at all. There are YouTubes by
Dr. Blaylock MD you can search him and listen to what he says. According to him and the research, there are vaccine reactions and they are not rare.

I recently had a test for measuring levels of GAD (which came back abnormal). I had extremely high levels of GAD. I begin IVIg therapy soon. He also tested me for lupus, lyme disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and cat scratch fever. He wanted to rule out all possible things. I am very concerned about the lupus test, however, I've had the typical butterfly rash on and off for years, and didn't realize what it was until my sister in law pointed it out (was a nurse).

If you are concerned, I would request further testing .

MrsD, thank you so much for your suggestions.

My Vit D is pretty good and I am taking D3. I will look into the SlowMag.

I very much suspect that my PN was caused by a Flu shot. Because I had some reactions right after the shot, and one month later my PN symptoms started.

I am hoping since it was vaccine related, it doesn't turn to chronic neuropathy.

I just read one of your other posts and am so glad you finally got a diagnosis and will be able to receive treatment. Sometimes I wonder since IVIg is so low risk, why not try it on idiopathic PN at least to see if it is effective.

May I ask what is GAD? Was your ANA positive?

GAD usually means generalized anxiety disorder.

But I wonder if GAD in this thread means: ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-ga...ide_antibodies

Meant to clarify. The GAD testing was the glutamic acid decarboxylase test (not sure if that is spelled correctly). My gad antibodies were extremely elevated. And my ANA test came back normal. However, I've been told those differ from time to time so I would like to request another ANA test soon.

Here is a breakdown of the meanings of the values for this test:


http://www.mayomedicallaboratories.c...Overview/81596

and:
http://www.mayomedicallaboratories.c...nit_code=81596

Sounds pretty complicated.