Tongue twisting lupus antibodies

Johnny recently finished a book by Sinclair Lewis, called "It Can't Happen Here", and the whole time he was reading it, I kept asking him how he liked the book by Upton Sinclair. I could NOT keep the names of those two authors straight (probably because I haven't read much by either of them), but it got me thinking about a whole group of author's names that throw me for a loop. Try these on for size:

So not only do we have Sinclair Lewis and Upton Sinclair, we have Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, and just to add another one to the bunch, Robert Louis Stevenson. These tricky tongue twisters remind me of the names of those nasty lupus antibodies most of us are carrying around. I mean, look at this list of tricky wickets....who can keep them all straight? (Let me answer that. Not me!)

First, consider the fact that there are antibodies, and then there are autoantibodies. As lupus peeps, many of us have to contend with (or at least get tested for) antiphospholipid antibodies, of which there are two - lupus anticoagulant and anticardiolipin antibody. Then there's the antinuclear antibody test (ANA), anti-DNA (double stranded), anti-Sm, anti-RNP, anti-Ro [SSA] and anti-La [SSB]. To all that I say AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

I've provided a couple of links to help you decipher what in the heck the above paragraph is all about, so feel free to click for more information. Please do so - at least ONE of us will be enlightened!