I am a borderline ANA and I do not know what it means.
My body feels like I have been beaten with a bat and I am recoveryiing from Prostate Cancer after 43 Radiation Treatments!
Any ideas what the problem is, I am a young 62 year old male that has tooooooooooo much living to do yet and I do not want to feel like I do!
Thanks
Shame on your doctor for not explaining! You should definitely follow up with questions... ANA stands for Anti-nuclear antibodies, which means that your body has (a few, at least) antibodies against it's own cell nuclei, if my understanding is correct. My ANA is borderline, as well. Positive ANA can indicate lupus, but not necessarily - it can be positive for other autoimmune diseases as well. You might want to google ANA plus other symptoms you have and see what comes up - but don't jump to any conclusions! This stuff is tricky.... and the 'clinical picture', what the doc sees when he examines you and asks questions, is a large part of what happens next.
You might find it helpful to look at other areas on this site under the green "FIND" menu, and also on the Arthritis Foundation
Believe me , none of us wants to feel the way we do! hang in there!
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Ellen
Tuesday, November 03, 2009 at 03:58 PM
Hi Mutts.....ANA is a name of a test so I'm not sure what else it could mean relating to a diagnosis. But I have to say you may possibly be feeling like you have been beaten with a bat due to your cancer AND radiation treatments. Did you have surgery and/or chemo???? I am a cancer survivor of 3 yrs so I can tell you first hand cancer and radiation treatments make you feel like that. I had 3 surgeries, chemo for 4 months and 33 treatments of radiation. Radiation was the easy part as far as no pain but it exhausts you. How long ago was your cancer? If you had a prostatectomy (removal of the prostate gland) you can also feel beaten from that and add chemo ontop of all that ....thats bound to make you feel like you have been beat up. Also with prostate cancer do they have you take any pills in follow-up of your cancer treatments? Any meds for cancer can make you feel like that. You also have to look at your age its not easy going through all of that at your age (no offense I'm right behind ya lol). And lastly have you asked your doctor why you feel like that?
Hope this helps some as I know what you have been through. Take care and let us know what you find out.
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HEre are a few other places to look for information:
http://arthritis.about.com/od/diagnostic/a/ana.htm This one says that about 5% of the population tests ANA positive. Not sure I knew that! And it can be positive for certain kinds of other conditions/infections. Well, I learned something too...
http://www.medicinenet.com/antinuclear_antibody/article.htm
http://www.webmd.com/rheumatoid-arthritis/guide/blood-tests
The above sites are generally reliable sources of information!