Advice for seeking a diagnosis
Not being the most self-aware human around, I have finally put two and two together on a long list of things I’ve had for years that might point to something autoimmune going on. I have a doctors appointment in a couple of weeks where I want to raise this possibility and I’m wondering if anyone has any advice for being taken seriously.
I first went to a doctor with unexplainable fatigue about 3 years ago; they checked my iron and thyroid, both normal so I was basically told ‘people are tired sometimes’. Ok, I think, that sucks but I guess this is what getting older feels like (I was 34 at the time). Fatigue never really went away, I’ve raised it intermittently, but iron and thyroid always come back fine and no follow up ever suggested. Unrelated, my hands were swollen and painful this past winter and my doctor ordered rheumatoid and ANA. Rheumatoid was fine, ANA normal at 1:80, which I now understand could count as positive but also still low and ANA not a particularly helpful metric anyway. Since then, the fatigue has reached a level I would call debilitating so I did some research and realised I have a long list of symptoms that could be autoimmune. That in combination with my dad and brothers all having autoimmune/inflammatory conditions means that I think something isn’t right but because a bunch of the symptoms could honestly be chalked up to about a thousand things, including ‘normal’, I’m worried about being dismissed out of hand. Honestly I’m not sure how much longer I can go on like this, so the thought of being shooed away or being told there’s nothing wrong is….terrifying? Demoralising? Crushing? All of the above?
Any advice gratefully received on how to navigate this conversation.