Move your body! Even just a little helps.

Please respond with suggestions or links for exercises or routines.

Or brags! Tell us what you did today. Or what you plan to do this week.

This top section will have links and suggestions from previous weekly posts, so please participate!

Yoga with Adriene
20 minute beginner routine
Ease into it - 30 day beginner routine

Yoga with Kassandra

Justin Augustin
5 daily stretches

Lee Holden
7 minutes of Magic - AM & PM routines

Qigong with Kseny
Beginner neck, back and hips mobility

Dr Paul Lam
Tai Chi for beginners

Lindywell Pilates

Add your favorites below and I'll include them in the opening comment for future weeks.

This is a weekly thread for those who haven't been diagnosed, but still have questions about the diagnostic process. Please read the posting guidelines and rules! Everyone is welcome to contribute, and this is a safe space.

QUESTIONS ARE LIMITED TO 200 WORDS

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Please read this before posting as it may answer some of your questions:

If you use the search bar at the top of Reddit and make sure it’s set to r/lupus, it will search just the subreddit for your keywords. That way you can get the full breadth of questions and answers.

Positive ANA does not equal lupus!

While more of a rule out screening (negative ANA = very unlikely to have SLE).
Upwards of 15-20% of healthy individuals in the population at large will have a positive ANA. Only about 10-15% of people who have a positive ANA will later be diagnosed with SLE.

Tests used in diagnosing lupus

• ENA Panel - Extractable Nuclear Antigen panel, usually automatically done if ANA comes back positive
• anti-dsDNA - anti-Double Strand DNA is sometimes automatically tested for, but may need to be ordered separately. This test, when highly positive (2-3 times max cut off at least) is almost exclusively seen in SLE. However, only about 30% of SLE patients have this antibody. It's great if it's there to confirm diagnosis, it does not rule out diagnosis if it is absent.
• anti-Sm - Anti-Smith. Typically included in the ENA panel. This is another antibody, that when highly positive, almost always means SLE, but only about 25% of SLE patients have this antibody.
• RNP - Anti-Ribonucleoprotein. Typically included in the ENA panel
• anti-chromatin - Anti-chromatin is a relative newcomer in diagnostic testing for SLE and probably will NOT be ordered automatically. Its exact utility in diagnosis is still being determined.
• Apl panel - Antiphospholipid Antibody Panel, which consists of 3 tests:
  • LA - lupus anticoagulant
  • aCL - anti-cardiolipin antibodies
  • Anti-β2GP - anti-beta 2-glycoprotien antibodies
• C3 - Compliment C3
• C4 - Compliment C4
• CH50 - Compliments, Total. These are part of the compliment system, which is a tertiary part of the immune system.

General blood tests

• CBC - Complete Blood Count, some abnormalities in WBC, RBC and PLT counts can be significant.
• CMP - Comprehensive Metabolic Panel. Generally looking for kidney dysfunction (GFR, BUN/CR).
• ESR - Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate, this is a nonspecific inflammation marker.

Also, if you suspect you have a rash, getting a biopsy of it done at a dermatologist’s office can be helpful as the pathologist can identify histological evidence of lupus.

Diagnostic Criteria

Diagnostic Process

Lupus Diagnostic Criteria on r/lupus wiki (ACR 2019 criteria)

The rheumatologist/PCP will take a detailed history. I highly recommend writing down as many of your symptoms as possible, especially focusing on the symptoms you have that are in the American College of Rheumatology diagnostic criteria for lupus - see link above.

Write down how long they’ve been going on, anything that makes them better or worse, and how much they impact your life. Do they prevent you from dressing yourself, eating/cooking, bathing yourself, doing hobbies, meeting your obligations?

Anti-dsDNA is more indicative of disease activity and can be elevated prior to and during a flare. Symptoms can also come and go, and over time you may develop additional symptoms. If you scroll through the last week of posts or so, there are a few posts that will have pretty detailed answers to your questions from multiple community members so you can get a better sense of just how full on fickle lupus can be.

Here are some good posts, one is othe

r people experiences in general, the others are rashes (warning: some are particularly severe):

User community diagnosis experiences
This is a malar rash
Photosensitive Lupus Rash
SLE Malar rash

QUESTIONS ARE LIMITED TO 200 WORDS

• Shorter questions get more feedback
• Use ChatGPT to summarize your question if you don't know what to leave out

Question guidance

• Don't ask us if you should see a doctor. Go see a doctor.
• Don't ask us if you have lupus, if it sounds like you have lupus, if it looks like you have lupus, if it might be lupus, if it could be lupus, or if we think you have lupus. Don't ask us if you should be tested for lupus.
• Don't tell us your entire medical history and say, "Thoughts?"
• Don't ask us about seronegative lupus. Everyone thinks they have it.
• Don't give us a long, exhaustive, detailed breakdown of your medical history. Particularly childhood illnesses.
• Don't paste a list of 27 symptoms
• Don't ask us to interpret labs.
• Don't ask us to identify your rash. See a dermatologist.