So I went to see Dr. Scully today in Reno. I was sceptical of him, but left the appt satisfied, feeling like he really listened and took time with me. He spent over an hour with me, measuring My range of motion, checking for effusion in all my joints. Turns out, I have the same amount of fluid in both knees, even though the right knee is the one with limited range of motion and with the most pain, stiffness.
He said this definitely does not present like rheumatoid. He feels confident in ruling out RA. However, he believes that if this isn't Lyme, that it may be an HLA-B27 related arthritis. Bodie tested positive for a genetic marker named HLA-B27, which is a marker for ankylosing spondylitis. Bodie doesn't have AS yet, but could possibly develop it as a young adult. I'm familiar with this genetic marker. I didn't know that B27 is also related to other autoimmune arthritic conditions such as reactive arthritis (aka Reiters Syndrome). He said that it does look to him like reactive arthritis and wants to test me for the HLA-B27 marker. Now this is all if the Lyme comes back negative.
If it's autoimmune, then I will start on the same drugs that they treat RA with. He will start me with methotrexate weekly injections, and also initially pairs that with Doxycyline. It's Interesting, he said there are studies that doxycyline can help in the first year or so of symptom onset. Of course this is only if the Lyme is negative.
This morning I called the lab in CA and they said they faxed the results to my doc yesterday, so I called my doc's office and left a message saying PLEASE call me this a.m. with my results! So for now, I wait...................
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