Hi. I'm obviously new here and I'm awaiting a diagnosis provided rheumatoid arthritis is ruled out. I think it's just a formality. I'm 33, my mother has SLE and developed her first symptoms also at 33. We have both had pseudotumor cerebri at some point in our lives. I went to my doc the other day with a couple of very painful, hot, and red joints in my fingers. I was also running a low grade fever with no explanation (I had also been to my gyn 3 weeks prior and was running a low grade fever then too), I have awful fatigue (get home from taking my son to school, go back to bed, and wake up when it's time to go get him), and I have the butterfly rash and night sweats. The thing that dumbfounds me and frustrates me so much about this is that I'm a long-distance cyclist and I haven't felt like training or riding much at all since April. I'm used to being very very active. The joint pain began in July. My doc took one look at me (he is also my mom's doc) and said that he was going to run a full lupus and rheumatoid panel on me. I don't know the exact tests he ran, but my goodness he took 8 tubes of blood. I have had the elbow pain that comes and goes but is intense when it's there, I've had migraines, and my husband doesn't understand why I can't seem to do anything. When I told him what my doc was testing me for, this look of recognition tying all my vague complaints washed over his face. He has been thinking I'm a hypochondriac and just complaining because it's fun or something. I think he understands now, because he's seen my mother deal with her SLE over the past 15 years that we've been together. My question is, with the symptoms I've been having, is the testing simply to confirm what my internist strongly suspects? Thanks for any insight you can give.