young confused and scared PLEASE HELP?

[oona]

i have so many symptoms and this has been going on for four years with no answers. i've had multiple tests (n brain scan), but recently i had an ANA test come back positive with homogenous and speckled patterns at 1:160. i have read  conflicting things about ANA and MS (i.e. can an ANA be an indicator for MS)?

i have had recurrent episodes since i was twenty-five, the most bothersome is a dull pressure at the back of my head (right side) moving to the front over the temple. this pain has happened before (last christmas and this summer), where at points it has felt like i have a double ear infection, but when i get it checked out, the doctor says there's nothing there.

the constant issue has been bowel related, which i think might be confusing the issue.

other symptoms include, muscle flutters, numbness / tingling, daily diarrhea, really fast heart rate (150 bpm for over a year).

my last doctor chocked it all up to stress and i'm having a really hard time getting any medical professional to take me seriously with this. i have been in bed since the end of october and to the emergency department three times in a week and a half.

the only thing they are able to come up with is a hemangioma on my liver and the ANA.

i'm really scared. i thought that maybe this might be lupus, but with the head pressure stuff, i wonder if it could be ms? what other indicators (medical tests) could confirm it one way or another? i don't know how much longer i can go on with the suffering.

maybe it's something else? please help.

[oona]

i have had both those tests and a thyroid ultrasound and they were normal. my heart rate is 150 daily.

ast, alt, ck, chloride, potassium, sodium, crp, ggt, rf, amylase & lipase, ferritin, vitamin b 12, uric acid, all normal.

abnormalities: low blood sugar; trace amounts of protein and blood in urine; positive ANA test w/ homogenous and speckled patterns, titer 1:160; slightly high hemoglobin; high neutrophils; low lymphocytes; high uric acid; liver hemangioma on ultrasound.

[summerluvr]

have you had blood tests for anemia, and things such as your thyroid?  I have a thing with my heart rate too.  It will start beating fast (like 130)  when I get sick, when I'm anemic, and now recently  because of my thyroid

[oona]

thank you so much for answering me, this has been really hard. sorry for complaining.

i meant to say that i've been in bed since the beginning of october. when i'm not having an episode, i'm usually pretty sharp, sorry ;)

i was referred to a mood and anxiety clinic that didn't feel that i needed their services, however, they did send a letter to my former doctor to follow up with a psychiatrist. the doctor never gave me that referral and he hasn't contacted me back since april 2010.

i am now seeing a registered nurse. i have only had two appointments so far. she doesn't feel like she wants to send me to a rheumatologist yet, in order to first build up a history ( easy to say when it's not a chore to get out of bed).

i have been to the emergency dep't many times this fall and the outcome is usually that they can see that there is a problem with my heart rate, but all my blood work comes back normal, etc. long wait to see a GI doctor about weight loss / digestion problems...
once they give me iv fluids at emerg and i lay there for about five hours, my heart rate goes down and they discharge me.

another er doctor also suggested that my numbness / tingling / muscle flutters / headache is probably due to anxiety.

i just know it's not. not sure where to turn next, so hard my body's not cooperating (brain pretty uncooperative at times, too).

thanks for replying

[COBOB]

While you can rarely have a positive ANA with MS, it is more common to see it with Systemic Lupus (another Autoimmune Disease.)  SLE is normally diagnosed by a Rheumatologist. Many of the symptoms you have listed are common to several conditions, but SLE effects the liver, and has cardiac effects that MS doesn't.

Bob