Monday, September 20, 2010

"Beating a dead horse" goes the expression....

An idiom meaning: To engage in pointless and repetitive discussion.
How many times a day does anyone of us do that?
Well, I may have done that, oh not with my Facebook friends at all, I have lots of fun speaking with them, but with trying to get to the bottom of all my questions about my blood work!

Interestingly, the medical person did call just after nine this morning, but foolishly I was in the shower. And yes, it was another nurse, a RN, not a doctor from Shared Solutions the support group for my Copaxone and so I asked her to call back in fifteen minutes since I was in the shower. Who knows if it was a doctor on the phone if I actually would have come out of the shower and not said anything?
And she very diligently did call back within my allotted time limit.
You see, although Hubby was here he’s not into anything medical except maybe giving me shots… I think there is something Freudian about that…hmm. LOL
And so all the online information that confused me on getting some real answers and was conflicting in the facts was what I saved in favorites for my proof of why I didn’t know exactly what might be going on with the highs and lows on that blood work, and yes in the end I did have other questions and so it was recommended I speak with my neurologist.
Got that?
Well, my question might have confused her too, since she insisted I speak with the pharmacist who would know for sure if my Copaxone had any affect that early on, ten days after starting it at the time of the blood work, back on July 26th; Copaxone was started on the 16th, but I know you knew that!
Here’s my time line July second or there about is when my right eye went blurry, and brilliant women here figured OK, another cataract since the left one had its gotten bad and had been surgical repaired last January, not too farfetched an assumption, huh?
Or maybe a case of optic neuritis, but many do go away on their own.
So not something to rush off to the doctor too soon and anyway I had a GP appointment within that month actually 20 days later to check out my shoulders and to see if they warranted further investigation by a dermatologist, and so I would ask him.
And he did examine my eye, and said that the cataract that he saw was not severe enough to cause my blurriness, and he was one that had me go for all that blood work on the 26th!
And said that my shoulder should be seen by the dermatologist but that wouldn’t be until the end of the month, he was booked up that’s summer in Florida!
He was right on both counts.
When they received my blood work back around the beginning of August I asked if they would fax it to my neurologist and mail one to me, you see I saw her on August 9th and they faxed it to her on the tenth, the next day.
My mail never provided me with a copy until last week when I remembered about it and how in the interim I had received many other requests from others and so on our way out to somewhere else we stopped by and Hubby went in to pick it up. I had to call ahead and remind them that they had forgotten!
But to be fair so had I.
And when I first looked closely at it I did notice that my CRP was high but I had no idea what that meant, and then I noticed that the lymphocytes were low and so was my NA, sodium, but that one I thought was good since I thought sodium was not good in your diet. Boy, was I dumb and about to learn a whole bunch of stuff better being taught in a microbiology class or some such thing.
It turns out that a high CRP can mean colon cancer, diabetes, or heart disease susceptibility, and low lymphocytes are seen in all sorts of autoimmune diseases besides Multiple Sclerosis, aplastic anemia, Hodgkin’s and other blood cancers, so far the low sodium I have not investigated. And the only thing that has kept me going is the fact that my neurologist has not felt the need or desire to call since she received this documentation on August 10th!
And the fact I will try and call her again tomorrow.
Since I called earlier after the Sure Solutions determined that their medication would not have that or any negative affect, but some how my doctor’s nurse did not give her the message for when I tried calling her office back it was already closed for the day.
I called the hospital that has the free ask the nurse question number, and they too said it was more than likely to being caused by the optic neuritis inflammation, which actually did make sense, but suggested I still call the doctor tomorrow.
PS my righty eye is still not among the working class; still in that darn recession that according to our latest polls we have been out of since June of 2009! LOL
But to be fair it is an eye, a part of a matched set, well it used to be, and retired in Florida, so we are not counted? LOL
As you all know I had the IV infusions the middle of August well after the blood work was taken, so it has no part in the equation, except for now causing three cataracts in righty eye along with the optic neuritis and severe dry eye I had for years, sadly that is the only treatment supposedly to cure optic neuritis.
Oh well, my saga will be continued here tomorrow night hopefully with some answers but who knows my next scheduled appointment with the neurologist IS next month!

Happy night to all and to all count those blessings and we will too!

Speaking My Mind: Which way will the war go?

Speaking My Mind: Which way will the war go? :   My eyesight is going again... in case you missed it... Netanyahu snaps back against growing...