Do your lupus and fibro flare together?

If you have both fibroymyalgia and lupus do they flare together?  Still trying to figure out which is which wen it is hitting me and am thinking it is both together.  How do you tell?

[geminigirl1963]

Oh my YES!!!  My fibro and lupus both flare quite often together - I'm not sure if one brings on the other or if it just happens that they both tend to flare at the same time.

Sometimes I can tell if it's the lupus as opposed to the fibro because of the "butterfly rash" - and I sometimes run a low grade fever with my lupus flares - but sometimes, if the main complaint is increased pain, it's definitely hard to tell.

I know it's not uncommon to have both fibro and lupus, so it's not all that surprising to me that the flares would/could also go hand in hand.

[Dlindquist83]

What are the chances I have lupus based on having only the joint pain symptom and my CBC and CRP came back completely normal, sed rate was slightly high and a  positive ANA titer is unknown until Monday.  Like I said I am 27, have been having joint pain for 10-12 years and only other symptoms are my anxiety (after dad died) and GERD in my stomach.

[geminigirl1963]

It is still possible to have lupus even with "not completely off" bloodwork, even with a negative ANA.  Sometimes it takes time for the ANA to come back positive - I had three rounds of the testing done before my ANA showed positive for lupus.  At the time I was having major GI problems that my GI doc said are only seen in a certain type of cancer or in lupus.  Fortunatley, all my cancer testing came back negative, so even though my initial ANA also came back negative, he pursued that testing and like I said, on the 3rd one, the ANA did come back positive.

Of course, I'm no doctor, so I can't say for sure if you have lupus or not - or what else could be causing your symptoms, but yes, it is possible to have lupus where the only current symptom is joint pain.

Let us know what you find out about your ANA - and best of luck!

[karajo]

I think they do.  The symtpoms that I think are fibromyalgia are the pain across the shoulders and the thigh pain.  And many times that and the lupus symptoms collide.  Not always though.