You Can Tell Who Your Friends Are

Last week we received some news that has the potential to be horrible. It is not horrible, yet, but the sun isn't quite as bright as it was before the telephone call, if you know what I mean. BRE, who is 12, has been complaining about joint pain. Now, adolescents complain about many, many things. Additionally, adolescents are still growing and are a tad awkward, so joint pain is not unusual. Being a tad paranoid, when she went to her annual physical, we mentioned the pains, and, upon hearing that blood work would be done, I asked that an ANA be added to the list of blood work.
For the uninitialed, the ANA-' Antinuclear antibodies are a unique group of autoantibodies that have the ability to attack structures in the nucleus of cells. The nucleus of a cell contains genetic material referred to as DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid).
There is an ANA (antinuclear antibody) test which can be performed on a patient's blood sample as part of the diagnostic process to detect certain autoimmune diseases.' http://arthritis.about.com/od/diagnostic/a/ana.htm

The pediatrician called on Thursday. My beautiful 12 year old had a high ANA titer. That means that she could potentially have systemic lupus erythematosus.

SLE was the cause of death of her aunt, my older sister.

I immediately called my two 'sisters', only one of whom is related by blood. The other is related by something stronger than blood...almost 30 years of love. Oddly enough, she has also tested positive, but is asymptomatic.

As for now....we wait. The best thing, though, is that I know I don't wait alone.