Inching Closer
We are back from our trip to the big city to see the rheumatologist! I'm never sure, especially when we are driving out of town to see doctors, whether it will prove to be worth the drive. Twice over now--both with rheumatology and neurology--it's proven to be more than worthwhile. We loved the doctor today! She was very friendly, sharp, and excellent about listening and explaining her thought process. We were very impressed.
And we're slowly inching toward a diagnosis. We were actually seen first by a resident. After gathering information, asking questions, and doing an assessment, he said, "I think we'll do some more testing, but this looks to me like a myositis." I nodded like I knew exactly what he meant, then quickly hopped online when he left the room to do some more reading. Interestingly, of all the many diagnoses I've pored over, this one I'd skimmed past. I've seen it come up in long lists of conditions, but for some reason hadn't paid much attention to it. But as I did some speed-reading, I realized I did have some of the tell-tale symptoms.
The doctor came in shortly after. We reviewed my medical history, talked about symptoms, and did another short assessment. I'm proud to say my hips are pretty wimpy. I think her comment after assessing their strength was something along the lines of, "Let's go ahead and say you have some noticeable weakness. So there's something going on there." My ANA titer made some waves, too, impressing them both. I do what I can to make myself stand out in the crowd. The comment today after reviewing it was, "Yep, that's a pretty legit ANA." Needless to say, I loved this doctor. She was the perfect blend of professional and down to earth. I'm really glad to be working with her.
I had another eleven vials of blood drawn, encompassing a wide range of labs. I will be having an EMG in the next couple of weeks (eek!), and likely a muscle biopsy (double eek!), and then follow up with the rheumatologist in three weeks. While I'm not crazy about some of the tests that stand between me and a diagnosis, I'm very glad to hear some possibilities being discussed. The leading suspects at this point are polymyositis and lupus--both of which can be treated and managed fairly well. The outlook is a little brighter, and we were very pleased with today's visit.
In the meantime, we continue to tick off appointments: stress test, ultrasound, follow up with cardiology, EMG... I'll have had my fill of waiting rooms by the end of March!
Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, emails, and text messages today. We felt like we went into the appointment with a whole crowd of you in the wings. It's a little reassuring to think there may be a name for this crazy (although Micah says "this crazy" has had a name all along--April).
And we're slowly inching toward a diagnosis. We were actually seen first by a resident. After gathering information, asking questions, and doing an assessment, he said, "I think we'll do some more testing, but this looks to me like a myositis." I nodded like I knew exactly what he meant, then quickly hopped online when he left the room to do some more reading. Interestingly, of all the many diagnoses I've pored over, this one I'd skimmed past. I've seen it come up in long lists of conditions, but for some reason hadn't paid much attention to it. But as I did some speed-reading, I realized I did have some of the tell-tale symptoms.
The doctor came in shortly after. We reviewed my medical history, talked about symptoms, and did another short assessment. I'm proud to say my hips are pretty wimpy. I think her comment after assessing their strength was something along the lines of, "Let's go ahead and say you have some noticeable weakness. So there's something going on there." My ANA titer made some waves, too, impressing them both. I do what I can to make myself stand out in the crowd. The comment today after reviewing it was, "Yep, that's a pretty legit ANA." Needless to say, I loved this doctor. She was the perfect blend of professional and down to earth. I'm really glad to be working with her.
I had another eleven vials of blood drawn, encompassing a wide range of labs. I will be having an EMG in the next couple of weeks (eek!), and likely a muscle biopsy (double eek!), and then follow up with the rheumatologist in three weeks. While I'm not crazy about some of the tests that stand between me and a diagnosis, I'm very glad to hear some possibilities being discussed. The leading suspects at this point are polymyositis and lupus--both of which can be treated and managed fairly well. The outlook is a little brighter, and we were very pleased with today's visit.
In the meantime, we continue to tick off appointments: stress test, ultrasound, follow up with cardiology, EMG... I'll have had my fill of waiting rooms by the end of March!
Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, emails, and text messages today. We felt like we went into the appointment with a whole crowd of you in the wings. It's a little reassuring to think there may be a name for this crazy (although Micah says "this crazy" has had a name all along--April).
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| The best part of my day: a quick bagel date with Micah at Einstein Brothers. |
