Rheumatologist Visit

If you've been reading this blog for a little while (Hi Lotus!) you'll know I recently had an appointment with my rheumatologist. Oh my. Where to start.

Well you know I compiled a few pages of what has been going on - Reviews of November, December, and January. She looked at those (just a cursory look, and she didn't keep them for the file -- never does when I bring stuff in - odd?) If I was a doctor, I would ask to keep all that kind of stuff for future reference.

They took about 6 vials of blood and a urine sample, because I told her about urethra pain I have been having. It doesn't happen when I urinate, and it comes and goes so it's very weird. My mother has a mild case of Interstitial Cystitis (another condition that often goes along with Fibromyalgia) so that may be it.

Back to my monthly reports. She said all the stuff I had on there was typical for Fibromyalgia, then she proceeded to offer me ANY Fibromyalgia medication I would like. Really, she was going to write just about anything I asked for.

We talked about how I had tried Elavil and had bad side effects, and how I had tried Effexor 75 mg and I had the bad claustrophobic thing in the middle of the night and panic, which I don't usually have...so I had stopped taking that and tried the 37.5 mg Effexor, to have heart racing and other side effects that in my opinion were worse than pain and fatigue.

I turned down additional medications, saying I do try to take the Tramadol for pain rarely nowadays, and even on a very bad day, I try to never take more than 2 pills in 24 hours. I cut the Flexeril muscle relaxants in half. 

Then she said IT.

"You are so very sensitive to medications."

She said it kindly, but it hit me that perhaps I stood out to her as more sensitive than her other patients.

What she said triggered some thoughts when I left.

• If I am very sensitive to medications, more sensitive than other people, wouldn't it make sense that I am ALSO more sensitive to substances in foods and anything else I ingest?

So I did a fair amount of Googling about food additives and preservatives (I need to look even further into that), but somehow got "off track" and learned about Gluten Sensitivity. That led me to Thyroid problems - Underactive thyroid (Hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's Thyroiditis).

A lot seems to just MATCH. I mean like at least 90%.

I have now been thinking about what my first steps now will be. Tomorrow I need to take my daughter on a college tour, and when I get back I'll call my primary care doctor and see if I can set up an appointment to go over all these concerns. Because I think the family doctor can run the thyroid test. Oh I guess I should first call the Rheumy's office to ask about what tests they ran, so I won't do anything in duplicate.