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wgorman said: Care Giver awareness is what is important with this subject. How many people have had back surgery when an autoimmune disease is responsible for inflaming the spine? Doctors will test you for hepatitis 10 times before ever considering an underlying autoimmune problem. Then they think an ANA test alone is definitive in diagnosing some autoimmune diseases. The VA called me a Hypochondriac in 1997, and then when I got some private insurance a Nurse Practitioner found I have Hashimoto’s disease. I have developed neuropathy in my feet and it is starting in my hands. I had carpel tunnel surgery 18 months ago and my hands are still tingling. I believe I have Guillain-Barré, but the VA sent me to their Neurologist he did no tests at all (other than order another HIV and hepatitis test that are always negative) and they refuse to test my spinal fluid. 2 months ago they put me on 2, 20mg Prednisone a day for a week, after a bout with pneumonia and I felt better than I had for 10 years. My feet were beginning to feel better, my back, my head was clearer than it has been in ages, my girlfriend even commented on how much clearer my eyes were. So I started looking into what ailments prednisone relieves. It is all autoimmune and the VA has been leaving me untreated for 10 years and ignoring my requests for an Immunologist. They argue that they can’t prescribe prednisone for prolonged time, I argue if Prednisone is what works it should make it easier for them to figure out my diagnosis. I now have a strange sweeping sound in my ears and I am so dizzy today, that I have to stay in bed because the lackeys at the VA ignore my calls. Doctors are the ones who need awareness, I have given them all of my symptoms and told them what works and what does not, yet they are unable to make any kind of logical diagnoses. in Men also get autoimmune diseases
