rheumatoid arthritis

My father was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis shortly after WWII. He developed it shortly after being shipped back from England in a coma with a very high temperature. He had the usual symptoms of RA but it was not symetrical. It affected different joints on either side of the body. He died in 1965. About a year before he died, he developed unusual symptoms- loss of taste, areas of de-pigmentation etc. It then worsened to include high fevers (106F), seizures, comas,severe inflamation (inflammation) of the arteries, edemas of the brain and other organs. Most of his muscles atrophied to complete immobility. He developed complete amnesia. Does anybody have a clue as to what this could have been? I have talked to a few of my doctors and they said it did not sound like typical RA. My brother, sister and I have various autoimmune disorders- Autoimune hepatitis, RA, Hashiomoto's thyroiditis, types 1 and 2 diabetes and so on. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!  I have had periods of feeling "unwell" for many years and wonder if there is a connection. ThankYou

[Garth L Nicolson, PhD]

Yes, it was most likely a systemic, chronic infection that was never diagnosed or treated.  

The symptoms that you and your brother have could also be related to one or more chronic infections.  In our published studies on RA we found different infections, such as Mycoplasma, Chlamydia, Borrelia, etc. and these infections also cause pancreatitis, which can cause a diabetes-like state.  In fact, my wife has this problem, but it was incorrectly diagnosed as type 1 diabetes, when in fact, it was pancreatitis.

[Richie_D]

Thank you so much!  What kind of specialist could I see about this? I desparately want to get to the bottom of this. My diabetes and high blood pressure have caused kidney desease- stage 3- and maybe getting to the main problem will help. Thank you so much!       Rich

[kimthuy67]

A related discussion, RF elevated overtime was started.