countrygal's blog: "Medical stuff..."

Ok, I’ve been really bad about keeping this up to date. Since I last wrote, I’ve had a lot happen. In September, I went on a 4 mile walk around a wildlife refuge and apparently messed up my foot, as later that night, I noticed my big toe on my right foot was kinda numb. You know, like the feeling you get after getting a shot from the dentist and it starts wearing off… its fuzzy feeling. I ended up going to the podiatrist, and found out that I have a bone spur in my foot, in a really odd spot… it’s mostly about the top of my foot (above the arch) but just to the inside of the foot. The SAME place the nerve from the leg to the big toe runs. So when I went on the walk, the bone spur got inflamed and damaged the nerve. It’s better now, but could happen again at any time. I also was sent to see a rheumatologist, because I’ve started hurting pretty bad in my hips and knees again; mostly my knees. This is making it difficult to sit for long and definitely hard to walk (especially up and down the stairs to the apartment). The rheumatologist ordered an MRI of my back, because my x-rays haven’t shown any problems. I went back to see him yesterday to get the results of my MRI, and they were normal. There’s absolutely no evidence of arthritis in my spine – even though I carry the gene for spondylitis. The pain in my knees and hips has gotten worse since I first started seeing this specialist. So yesterday, he ordered MORE blood work and I had to have x-rays of my pelvis and both knees. The blood work he ordered is for rheumatoid arthritis and a re-test for Lupus. This test for Lupus is more accurate than the one that was done during the summer. I go back on the 15th of this month for the results of all this stuff. Also, I am close to ending physical therapy for my shoulder I think. We’ll see what happens with it once I’m working again. My arm hasn’t fallen out of socket in a while now. So I’m hoping it’s helped some. We have been doing a TON of strengthening exercises on both of my shoulders. And even the pain has gone away for the most part. UNLES I go and do something stupid, like picking up a case of water and try to put it in the grocery cart. Oh well, guess that will get better in time too. I will post another update after I go to the specialist again.

**these are older blog posts, but putting them up for those who aren't already aware of what's been happening** I did my first full set of reps with the exercises the physical therapist gave me last night. That was hell. I took a nice hot shower afterward, thinking that would help ease the muscles and joints… and even remembered to take Advil before going to sleep too. I think I got a total of MAYBE 1 hour of sleep. I was in a lot of pain. This is definitely going to be a LONG road to getting back to semi-normal.

**these are older blog posts, but putting them up for those who aren't already aware of what's been happening** Today was my first physical therapy (PT) appointment. I’m not in as much pain as I expected (yet), but I still need to make it through the night. That’s my worst time anyway. After spending some time with my therapist, it boiled down to the following: those that have similar “injury” or condition usually end up having to have surgery. I will never fully recover. I will probably have to do therapy off and on for the rest of my life or end up having surgery. So I’m working on accepting what I found out today. It’s been a long informational day.

**these are older blog posts, but putting them up for those who aren't already aware of what's been happening** Ok, just got home from the orthopedic specialist. Once again, I have managed to stump the drs. Dr isn’t sure why it’s a problem, BUT apparently the tendons in my shoulder have all stretched out and that’s why my arm keeps falling out of socket. Dr doesn’t want to do surgery at this point because the cons outweigh the pros. At this point, I am going to have to start physical therapy twice a week for at least 4 weeks and go from there. Hopefully, this will help. Dr is hoping that the PT will strengthen the muscles enough to compensate for the stretched out tendons. Wish me luck, because I REALLY REALLY don’t want to have surgery! I’ll keep you all updated on everything. Thanks for all your support.

**these are older blog posts, but putting them up for those who aren't already aware of what's been happening** So, to update everyone on the Lupus situation... Spoke with the dr's office, they DID do a second test in regards to the Lupus testing. The first test WAS positive, but the second test was inconclusive. They will probably re-run the bloodwork in the near future. Current situation, I was sitting down Tuesday evening, and my left arm started to drop outta socket. So I went to the dr today (Friday). Turns out I have a partial dislocation of my left shoulder. The dr ordered x-rays on my shoulder, will only hear about those if they see something bad. I have another appt on Sept 10, but this appt is with the orthopedic specialist. Until then, I am supposed to keep my arm in a sling. I will post another update when I know more. I appreciate all the thoughts and well-wishes from everyone!!

**these are older blog posts, but putting them up for those who aren't already aware of what's been happening** For those who don't already know, I went to the dr just about 2 and a half weeks ago for a new patient exam with my new dr. He decided to run a bunch of bloodwork and do some xrays to have his own full set of records. Well, a full set of back xrays and 7 (YES SEVEN) vials of blood later, I went home. On Monday of this week, I went in to get the results of all those tests... So here's the rundown... Thyroid / Metabolism - Normal. White Blood Cell count - Normal. Blood Sugar - Normal. Cholesterol - Slightly elevated, but nothing that a little getting out and moving around won't fix. Slightly anemic - guess I need to take vitamins again LOL! Arthritis test was positive, duh, I've known that for damn near 14 years now. X-rays show NO damage in my spine from the arthritis though, so that's a good thing. The most disturbing part was this last part... Apparently the dr found it necessary to run a test for Lupus (for those who don't know what it is, check it out at www.lupus.org - it's an autoimmune disease that can be either really mild, or can be fatal or anywhere in between) and well, the test came back POSITIVE. Now, the dr's response was, "a lot of those are false positives..." BUT he doesn't order more tests to find out either way. Needless to say, I've been in shock and mildly depressed since. I've called the dr's office and insisted on them ordering more tests and am now waiting to hear back from said dr's office regarding the new tests. I don't like to be negative about things like this, but the statistics on false positives isn't that reassuring. So, once I hear something new... I'll let ya know.