Sunday, October 19, 2008

Back to the Drawing Board


Doctor’s, jeez. I wish they would make up their minds. I was sent to a specialist after being told that I had Rheumatoid Arthritis only to be told by the specialist that it may be something else. So, back to the drawing board, they still don’t know what’s wrong.

The doc said that while the one test came back positive for RA not all of my symptoms are matching up and a second more detailed test came back negative. She said that if it was RA I should already have nodules on my hands and I don’t. It seems that the majority of the joint problems I do have are in areas not commonly affected by RA. So…she thinks because the focus is primarily on my back, and hips/pelvis area that I may have Inflammatory Back Disease instead. Supposedly, it’s a disease that is under-diagnosed due to doctors not always recognizing symptoms. The actual non-layman term is Ankylosing Spondylitis and it does seem to be a better fit to the “symptoms” I’ve been having. Both RA and AS are inflammatory diseases, which explains why the symptoms are similar. I guess we’ll have to wait and see…again.

I’m tired of waiting, though, you know? This has been going on far too long. I really just want to know what the heck is happening to me. I have to go in for yet more testing on the 4th. I’m going to have to vote first, though, they said the sedative will make me groggy all day. I should probably just go and vote early like Charmi did, huh? I’m going to have to be sedated for the test. It’s only an MRI but it’s going to be rather extensive which means I’ll need to lie in one position, very still, for about an hour; and well…I can’t do that. Sitting, standing, lying down any which way you look at it I can’t be in one position more that about 10 minutes. I experience way too much pain and stiffness so I have to continually move around, shift my weight, and readjust. And yes, for anyone wondering; it makes it very difficult to sleep at night. In fact, I literally can’t stay in bed more than about 6 hours at a time. I have to get up and move around for a while and I wake up many, many times throughout the night changing positions and sometimes just getting up to walk around.

Crying out loud, I sound like a whinny thing. But, I figured since I had made the previous post after receiving word on the RA that I should make this one too. I know that several of you who read this blog know me, and care about me. Thank you, buy the way. I just want to make sure that you’re in the know and that all the facts are right. I guess I’ll let you know what I know when I know it. Until then, back to life as usual.

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