3/30/11 The Doctor Parade

Spring Training........a much better thing
to do this time of year

Since I was having so many challenges after coming home from the hospital in February, I decided I should go see a local doctor to check on a few things.  The challenges include still not properly absorbing water which makes me feel dehydrated, my eyes dried out, and constipated all the time.  These, of course, on top of the inability to walk properly, having the bathroom problems, and my new great thrill in life, a heart that goes in an out of rhythm whenever it feels like it.  Sure, sitting here writing about it and anyone reading it seems to minimize the situation, but living with this crap, every minute of every day, is a joke.

And so a trip to the family doctor.  Discuss, review, assess, and draw blood.  Lab results a week later and another visit, then a referral to a caner clinic.  Nobody tells you the cancer clinic is also the hemotologist, which I was referred to because my platelets suddenly decided to go low.  After leaning out my shorts, I met with her yesterday.  This was a treat.  I tell her about my CCSVI experience and the idea that MS may be related to the incomplete return of blood way from the brain, and she listens with some interest.  I tell her about my A-fib and she listens.  I tell her I have no idea why I am visiting her, and that I figure there's a 99% chance that she'll have blood drawn but have no idea why my platelets are low.  I ask if it could be related to injuries while on Coumadin.  Nope.

Any chance it's the Coumadin/Heparin combination as my doctor friend suggested?  No.  Any chance it's from residual medications from the hospital?  No.  Any chance it's related to all the nonsense I'm going through?  No.  Just no.  No idea.  As usual, no idea.  15 years of medical training and she scorns the CCSVI as a possible link to MS, but she has no idea why my platelets are low.  The story of my medical life.  They have names for everything, but no cause and no cure, and the scorn for anything new is rampant.  There's certainly a billing code for the visit, but nothing for me.  Funny how as a contractor when I don't have the solution or have complications the customer demands a discount or refuses to pay altogether, then wants to sue me and report me to the the contractor's board, and takes out a full page ad in the newspaper and every local TV about what an awful person I am.

Then there's Dr. Arata.  I sent him an email last week asking about my Doppler results and what was next.  My left jugular has re-stenosed again, likely clotting, and he got the info last week.  I sent him an email on Wednesday and he hadn't replied by Friday, so I figured he was busy as usual.  Then I got a reply on Sunday morning with an apology for the delay.  Three days is hardly a delay in medicine.  Hundreds of MS patients a week calling his office, and he emails me on a Sunday morning with an apology and a plan.  The nerve..........

Anyway, the plan is to get my INR level of the Coumadin up to therapeutic levels consistently, then go back in and do another Venogram/Angio.  Why does this make sense?  The Lovenox I was on before did nothing, and all the hospital meds weren't isolated.  Now the Coumadin is isolated and measurable.  The clotting is only in the left jugular and is moderate, not fully occluded.  This is progress.

It seems so close yet so far.  I want to feel like I did in October after the surgery round 1.  Like a human, not a case.  I had measurable results, improved symptoms, and hope.  Since then, it's been a steady stream of bad news, but now I see measurable progress again.  Hope.

I wish this could go faster.  The waiting is the toughest part.