This is getting ridiculous...

Okay..Wed. I went to the long awaited Rheumy appt. for this knee pain. First thing, nurse takes vitals and asks me "Do you have an irregular heartbeat"? Well, no.. but according to two nurses and the rheumy I do. Oooookay. Now that I'm totally freaked out.. he comes in the room. He bends my elbows back and forth, tells me I have a good stretching program. He looks at my hands, turns them over looks at my palms. Tells me from THAT that I do not have lupus or RA. Tells me since i'm on narcotics, he wont' treat my fibro.. (gee, I take lortab for my knees and my back..not fibro). Then says my knees arent swollen, it's skin discoloration from smoking. Uh huh. He moves them maybe an inch.. says he sees absolutely nothing wrong with them. He orders MRI, then says he'll send me to ortho when the results are in. Not one drop of blood did he draw. That's all he did. Ten minutes tops.

So Thursday.. I go to my PCP. You should have seen his face getting redder and redder as I keep talking. He listens to my heart for a LONG time, even the pulses in my arms and neck. Told me I have absolutely not a thing wrong with my heart rate. He kept repeating.. he looked at your HANDS??? There was a lot of eye rolling going on, too..lol.

Soo.. he drew the blood panel the rheumy should have. He agrees with my plan, do the MRI.. go back once for results take my referrel to ortho.. then never go back. Doc said if he wont' refer me to ortho.. come back and he will.

So how ridiculous was that visit? All I've heard is how good rheumy's are at finding problems, and how much blood they draw.. and this one didn't do a darn thing for me.

ARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

Sarah

Sarah
I think you should find another Rhuemy. My first one did do some blood work and some xrays. he spent about 15 minutes per visit (I saw him 3 times) and in the end told me I fibro and nothing else and on the 3rd visit told me he had done all he could (He is even an associate professor of rhuematology at a state medical school). The second rhuemy did all the blood work he did again and then some plus a host of other test and found many things including arthritis and bone spurs in lots of places. the first visit she moved every joint in my body to feel how it was working (My first and second visits were about an hour each). Not all doctors or rhuemys are alike and some of them make their decesions to fast just like the rest of us. Unfortunatly when they do that we pay. You know something is going on with your body and you need to keep looking till you find a doctor who will look hard enough to help you. You are as always in my prayers.

Mark

PS
Could be that he just thinks your short
(couldn't resist) hehehehe

Sarah I do have to agree find another Rheumatolagist because the one you are seeing need's to go back to school.The first Rheumt that I seen was wounderful she bent me every wich way and did blood work.The first time I seen her iwas so swollen up that I so in so much pain and her first word's to me was oh my god.When my blood work came back she called and asked for me to come back in and it turned out I tested posative for RA(my Dad has RA)so it didn't supprise me at all.Well my ex-husband got transfered and I again got lucky and got a wounderful Rheumy by this time I was having severe pain in my lower back and my left knee was poping like crazy and she did some more test and blood work and it was found that not only did I have CROHNS,RA I also had OA as well.Now moving on I and my ex got devorced and I moved back to my home town (been gone for 24 years)I was sent to see this Rheumy(a man) this time and he was about as werthless as they came.I mean here I was with all of my files for him to read and see what has been done so on.Well he could not make up his mind if he was going to stay here are go back to New York.I got my PCP to find me another Rheumy and my PCP told me there was not another one that my Insurance would let me see I beged him to find me an Internest and it just so happen's that my Dad's Rheumy told my Dad to have my PCP to call DR.Winn and he did and she agreed to take my insurance I was so relived.I love her she has been wounderful to me and is so understanding as well and I would not trade her for any thing.The only draw back that I have is if I need blood work done I have to take the order and let my PCP do the blood work because my insurance will not pay for me to have my blood work are ex-ray's done there at her office.The point being that there are good one's out there some times we have to go through a few before finding another.Since I have been seeing this Rheumy it was discoverd that I as well have AS.I carry a gen called HLA-B27.W hen you find another Rheumy asked that you be tested for this gene because most people with this gene have RA,AS OS as well.It is a heretatery (sp)in turn means that one parent is a HLA-B27 possative.I do hope that you get every thing worked out I know it can be very frustrasting but you will find a better Rheumy and you will get on the right track.

Hi Sarah,

     I had alot of trouble with my first rheumy, said once the insomnia gets under control the pain from the fibro would go away! Ha!  He said I could not work any longer but that "he was not the guy to send the SSD paperwork to"  I am now seeing a new rheumy, she checks all my joints for swelling, knots and motion.  Come to find out I have RA, polyarthritis and Osteo!  My RH factor is on the borderline, but she said by her physical examination that I do have RA.  She placed me on methotrexate and plaqunel.  If I do not improve by the next visit then she will start me on Enbrel or Humira.

     Good luck to you Sarah, hope you find a good rheumy soon.  I know you have been suffering for a while.  I usually chat with you in the fibro chat.

Take care of you,

Tee

 

 

Hey Sarah, how's it going? Have you gotten your results yet? Have you decided what you are going to do? Hope all is well.. rest easy and take care... Duck

hey Sarah,

no, it's not bad.  and believe it or not...doctors want positive bloodwork and abnormal crap to show up as well!  nothing is more frustrating to a pt and an MD as a difficult-hard-to-crack treasure-hunt-case where there is no BOOM THERE IT IS IN YOUR FACE clinical findings.

Dr's like textbook pts.  few like to put the energy into the search.

so the twisted as it may seem feeling of "the want for abnormal" is...TOTALLY NORMAL.

especially if there are things going on that don't exactly make sense or are odd. or rare. and autoimmune and rheumatics?...geesh, GodBless people going into that specialty.  i mean, look at how complicated it is!  to us! 

so, in all...validation for what is wrong is kinda like....closure.  and Sarah, it may take a lot of time. but if they are finding things & this doc is acting differently, you're in the right direction.

in my prayers.

sincerely,

erin