Waiting for Confirmation

Well, I traveled to Roswell yesterday afternoon to go see Dr. Sudha Reddy. I must say that I am completely impressed with that practice - the office staff are honestly genuine about what they do - and I didn't feel like just another dollar sign coming in the door. Sue Ellen and the girls up front were great - and then my nurse Melissa and of course Dr. Reddy were wonderful!

The day before I had faxed them a copy of all the medical records I could find on me in the last three years - a 60 something page stack of papers that I simply refer to as my "book." I also tend to get caught up in the moment and forget to tell the doctor things when they are sitting in front of me, so I had written down for them in a Word document every doctor I had seen, every test I had done, and every symptom I have been having. I think Reddy liked my book :)

After looking over everything, Dr. Reddy explained that the CD-57 test that I had done (the one I begged my PCP to order) is definitely a good test to run and she actually knew how to read it! Progress from the lack of knowledge in Athens - yay!! She said while most Lyme patients are indeed diagnosed using this tool, it doesn't necessarily automatically always mean Lyme because it could indicate the presence of another type of immuno-suppressant disease. But it's definitely the main thing it indicates because the Lyme organism likes to feed on your CD-57 "Natural Killer Cells" in your immune system.

So what that means is that she wanted to have complete confirmation of the diagnosis to make sure we covered everything. She took some blood from me and is going to run what is called a PCR test - where they basically put the blood under a microscope and look for the actual organism or evidence of it. If that comes back positive, she then wants to look for evidence of it in my central nervous system by running a Spinal Tap (sigh, geez on the needle) to see if there are any antibodies and other marker cells in my spinal fluid.

The reason she is looking in the CNS is because I have had a number of neurological symptoms over the last couple of years. Tremors, jerking, and other symptoms have basically had my neurologist a little mystified. I've had a sleep study, an EEG, and an MRI - all of which rule out the possibilities of Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinsons, etc. I randomly have developed a severe B-12 deficiency in the last year, for which I have been giving myself b-12 injections once a week. (For those who don't know why that is a little odd...B-12 deficiencies usually only occur in patients who are 75 years old and above...very rare that it happens in a 25 year old). Anyway, we have to see what is causing all this.

So the next step is to wait to hear the results of the blood test by this Friday. At that point, we will probably be scheduling a spinal tap based on those results.

I feel positive about this - and positive that my doctor is competent and knowledgeable and intersted in finding out why I have been sick. So that is a huge step in the right direction! Especially after three years of doctors looking at me like I'm an idiot. One doc actually told me that I was a hypochondriac and that I needed to get over myself. I mean, REALLY. I wanted to say "Are you living in my body? Do you know how I am feeling? Cause if you do, then please help me. Otherwise, shut the hell up. I am not giving you any money." Instead I walked out of the room and went to a different doctor. Geez, I have respect for doctors because of the rigorous training they have to go through...but when they stop listening to their patients and don't want to put two and two together - they need get over THEMSELVES and do their freakin' job!

Anyway, again thanks for all thoughts and prayers! I felt them yesterday as the Lord guided me through this next step! I'll keep this blog updated when I hear back from the blood test :)

Best,
Joy