My nephrologist did a biopsy on my kidney and found the lupus in my kidney. Had he not done this we would still be looking. He says that lupus is very hard to diagnose. I have had this for 5 yrs now. I am currently on Cellcept,best drug ever, which there is a generic one now. I was just told thatmy lupus has resolved. I still have lupus, but my kidney function is back to almost normal. I use to have protein being stored in my legs which made them swell, when I urinated, it looked like I emptied a bottle of soap into the bowl, it was the protein being dumped out into my urine. Hope they find out what is the problem. If your doctor doesn't help you, get another one. I just found a rhematologist that I like , the first one was not very nice. hope this helps! hang in there!
Since there are a variety of auto immune diseases I think if I were you I would see the Rheumy. That being said, do some checking around and get some good recommendations, preferably from patients as well as doctors, who have seen the doctor you are considering.
While you would think a specialist should know his or her stuff this is not always the case.
I have sjogren's syndrome and so help me I had a Rheumy try to tell me this that this disease only gives you dry eyes and a dry mouth plus maybe RA. I should send her some books.
I am new to this disease but it can do many things including mimicking other diseases such as ms.
A good Rheumy should be able to run a good blood work set that should tell him/her a lot. You need a decent dx so you know what you are dealing with.
You need to be able to trust your doctor and I rather would not be happy with the wait and see attitude when kidney failure is a possibility. To me, this would seem like an emergency, but then, that is just me.
I wish you the best.