Re: First Rheummy Visit

[Guest guest]

Bob,

After this waiting I know you are terribly dissapointed to wait

more. Sorry. I do however think that it is a good thing that your

rheummy is being so thorough. My neighbor went through the same

thing. Her's did turn out to be RA and she is responding very well

to MTX and prednisone. I think most, if not all of us had a battery

of test when we first saw our rheummy.

I hope you get the blood work Monday so that you can start the

prednisone, it works so well on the inflammation and that relieves

the pain.

Try to get some sleep and rest this weekend.

Shirley

>

> My head is spinning and have a headache. Only got 2 hours sleep

last

> night but managed to get through my first visit to the Rheummy.

> This Rheummy seems to be very cautious and thorough which is

probably

> good. While my GP had no issue declaring this RA, she wants to

cover

> all the bases first. She doesn't want to make the jump to the

> diagnosis of RA without the full compliment of tests. She ordered

up

> Xrays including hands and wrists as well as chest xray. A ton of

blood

> tests included CCP and CRP and liver function and CBC and more

that I

> don't have a clue about but I'm sure she has her reasons. A ton

of

> tests.

> She confirmed that I have a lot of inflammation and pain going on

and

> was real good at finding all the places that hurt. She also

mentioned

> that there was something going on with my knuckles that she gave a

name

> for which was arthritis related. Something that I guess crept up

on me.

> As for other possibilities she listed of Polymyalgia Rheumatica

with

> possible Giant Cell Arteritis, Myositis, Sarcodosis and of course

RA.

> She wrote me a Rx for 25 MG of Prednisone (not just 5 days) but

said I

> couldn't start taking that until I had the blood tests. I'm

getting

> the chest xray and other xrays tomorrow and will try to get the

blood

> tests on Monday. I can have that done at my office. Noce that we

have

> a full medical group there. Said also to continue to take the

Celebrex

> for the inflammation. I see her again on the 22nd (10 days).

That's

> about it. Now to go take something for this headache. I'm sure I

need

> some sleep and probably not thinking straight.

> Bottom line is that while I spent the last 3 weeks getting my mind

> around a life with RA, she's now throwing into the mix the

possiblity

> it's not. Of course, if it's not, what the hell is it? Is it

> something worse? SOmething treatable or better yet, cureable?

This is

> giving me a major migraine.

>

[Guest guest]

>

> Bob,

>

> After this waiting I know you are terribly dissapointed to wait

> more. Sorry. I do however think that it is a good thing that

your

> rheummy is being so thorough. My neighbor went through the same

> thing. Her's did turn out to be RA and she is responding very well

> to MTX and prednisone. I think most, if not all of us had a battery

> of test when we first saw our rheummy.

>

> I hope you get the blood work Monday so that you can start the

> prednisone, it works so well on the inflammation and that relieves

> the pain.

>

> Try to get some sleep and rest this weekend.

> Shirley

>

Thanks Shirley. I pretty much expected that something like this

would be the case and you're right about getting that blood test as

quickly as possible so I can start the Prednisone. Actually I'm glad

she's thorough and not jumping to conclusions. If the final

diagnosis ends up being RA, at least I'll have no doubt. I'm going

to try real hard to not let my scientific mind start theorizing on

what might the other possible diagnosis' be if it turns out not to be

RA. I'm sure I could conjur up something a lot worse than reality.

I've gotten pretty good at taking it a day at a time.

Bob