Showing posts with label inflammation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label inflammation. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Doctor Plan

Do you think it's possible to treat an initial visit of a new doctor like a business interview? Maybe even use something similar to a business plan?
For instance, using a business plan format. A mission statement or vision statement, and objectives.

Main current concern:


My hands. I’ve had fibromyalgia for 15 years. It was tough, but I smiled and worked through it, sometimes 50 hrs a week, and went to school part-time. The FM is not what keeps me from working, or caused me to stop working, it’s my hands. I used to type 8-10 hours a day. Now I can’t type one page without having sharp pains in my hands. If I press further, I start having electric shock like pains in them. And, not just the right hand where the carpal tunnel is, BOTH hands.

Objectives:

  1. Confirm diagnosis (given the conflicting diagnoses over the SAME EMG test).
  2. What to do about the damage that has already been done. Can it be improved? If yes, how? 
  3. Is there an alternative to a CPAP machine for sleep apnea? I have chronic hayfever, and sinus problems, with moderate dryness. The air, even the CPAP with the humidifier, seriously increases this problem. 
  4. I need someone to teach me how to lose weight. A dietician or a nutritionist someone who can work with me on healthier alternatives, taking into consideration my health problems, and even my likes and dislikes. 
Full list of Symptoms: 

Inflammation hands
Pain in hands: aching, sharp pains (worse after for instance typing one page), next comes electric shock like pains
Pain in toes and feet, aching, rarely sharp
Inflammation in feet
Decreased feeling in hands and feet
Low grade fevers
Rash on scalp, back of head with low grade fever
Sensitivity to touch
General aching over entire body, worst left shoulder, down left arm, hands, feet, left chest
IBS
No BM for 3-4 days
Constant fatigue

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

NOT Neuropathy??

This time frustrated doesn't even begin to cover how I am currently feeling. Monday I went to a neurologist, hoping and praying to finally have some answers on how to help reduce the pain and inflammation in my hands. Seriously, I miss my job, and want to get back to my life!
Help, I got, but not what I was expecting. Last year my pain management doctor had a neurologist at Watson Clinic (an enormous medical center here) run an EMG test on my hands.The new neurologist told me the EMG tests showed NO neuropathy! WHAT???!!!! I knew the test showed some carpal tunnel in my right hand. I was told the CT was caused by the neuropathy and that it would just come back. After my thyroid surgery I was not ready to have anymore surgeries anyways. Plus the CT doesn't cause the type of pain I have, nor is it supposed to cause inflammation in the knuckles. Further, both the pain and inflammation are in BOTH hands and the CT is only in the right. 
I am so totally lost and frustrated. I will be calling my GP for an appointment on Friday to start this process all over again. They had previously ruled out rheumatoid arthritis as those test results were negative. This started over 2 1/2 years ago now. It took a year for the neuropathy diagnosis, and I thought we were getting somewhere then. Now I am back to square one and would like to crawl in a hole and bawl my eyes out. 
For all those idiots out there who still think there is nothing wrong, I may be able to fake pain, which I can assure you I am not, but I certainly can not fake the inflammation.
If anyone has had similar problems please let me know. Thanks! chele


p.s. I have the same problems in my feet.