HLA-B27 +

Mia’s blood test that came back as abnormal was for Human Leukocyte Antigen – B27, or HLA-B27 (a protein found on the surface of white blood cells). This should be negative, but her blood test was positive.  This is a marker that often occurs in people with an autoimmune disorder, but there are also many people that carry the marker, but have no symptoms of autoimmune disorders.  It doesn’t really tell us much more about her diagnosis, just that she is more predisposed to have an autoimmune disorder than someone who doesn’t carry HLA-B27.  Also, someone with HLA-B27 Uveitis is more likely to have the condition recur in the future.

We are working on getting her an appointment with a pediatric rheumatologist for a work-up and to see if she does have some sort of autoimmune condition going on.  The office called me today and said that before they can set up an appointment, all sorts of information and paperwork needs to be faxed from the Ophthalmologist and that our insurance has to pre-approve her treatment.  Right now, our insurance company is taking about 2 weeks for pre-approvals to go through, according to the rheumatologist’s office.

So the treatment plan for now is still the same.  The most important goal is to get the eye inflammation to go away.  We are continuing the eye drops for inflammation every hour, and the dilating drops 3 times a day.  Vision in the affected eye is still very blurry, but that is to be expected since it is constantly dilated and there is still inflammation.  She is complaining of pain in her legs and hips, but we don’t know if it might be arthritic pain or just plain old growing pains.  She also doesn’t have much of an appetite and seems to get frequent stomach aches.  We’ve got a follow-up eye appointment on Friday again, and are in a holding pattern for the appointment with the rheumatologist.  Continued prayers for her would be appreciated.  We are very thankful that she us mostly unaffected by anything that has been going on.  She is still playing despite any leg/hip pain and is still keeping active and doesn’t mind all the interruptions for the eye drops.  She is still plugging along with her Kindergarten work and is doing well.  🙂