Friday, April 23, 2010

Upcoming appointment...

Wednesday, with the NEW doctor to see about the CCSVI or possible CCSVI and what he thinks of my MRV. They called me today to set up the appointment and told me they did not think there would need to be any further testing done at this point. I am hoping this is a good thing in the sense that they have all they need and he can see everything clearly. Otherwise, I feel like maybe he is bringing me in to just tell me there is nothing there and to give me back my discs I took to him. Hopefully they would have just mailed them back to me if that we the case. Anyway, I guess in a few days I will see.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Add another one.....

to the growing list of doctors. Does it ever stop? I guess when the insurance runs out, huh? I am blessed to be able to go see these doctors when I need to though! This past week I saw the new rheumatologist and had more bloodwork done there. No real change in info compared to any other rheumatologists I have seen. He was a bit more personable though. Basically, I have an elevated ANA, which is a soft sign for Lupus/SLE (and possibly other things). I have low blood counts, both red and white, which is another soft sign of Lupus/SLE. I have hair loss (been experiencing this for a year now) but I am not going bald, which is a bonus. I have some other minor symptoms but nothing that he can make a 100% diagnosis for, or against Lupus. He wants to continue to watch the levels and see me back in 3 months. Basically I am where I was before.....but with another doc to add to the list and another part of town to visit in the future. This one is in far south Irving.



I saw my vascular surgeon(who I think is AWESOME) finally in regards to my MRV I had done. He seems to think there is something to the MRV to be looked into in terms of CCSVI. The neurologist looked at it and said all is normal - but she is looking at it based on info pre-CCSVI research. She has basically said she personally has not looked into CCSVI and seemed pretty dismissive about the whole possiblilty. I personally think that if there is something out there that could be a cause/issue/resolve for my MS patients (if I were a doc) I would be looking into this further and seeking more info to help them, especially when they are seeking it out through you and doing this research themselves already. Needless to say, the vascular surgeon even made the suggestion that it may be time to look for a more proactive neuro. I think I am in agreement on some levels. I just hate to mess up my treatment as it is at this point. Although, now may be the perfect time as the treatment (IVIG) is actually going through a whole new doctor whom I have yet to meet......hmmmm......time to contemplate some things.

Anyway, I ran my the MRV/MRA discs to yet another doctor that I will (hope to) be adding to the growing list of practitioners. He is a vascular specialist who is seeing patients with MS, looking into CCSVI. He is actually at UT Southwestern, which is a trek, but closer than anyone else at this point. I am very interested in seeing what he has to say. He was out of the office some last week, and I hope to hear more from them this week. I want to get this on the move, as I have been trying to get anywhere with it for months now. I have yet to hear anything from the Buffalo research and who knows if I will ever.....