It has been over a month since I have sat down to blog and I apologize. I know that those who are interested in knowing what is going on have been anxiously waiting for an update. It has been a rough month or so. I struggled to sit down and update everyone because it was over a month up annoying and often painful testing (both physically and emotionally)
July 20th - Biopsy day:
Last I blogged, I was about to go into surgery to have my biopsy. Well, that day came finally and I wet in un-nervous and with the support of my husband right by my side. As a matter of fact, I think he was nervous more than I was. We got there at 7 a.m. and by 930, I was headed under. I woke up an hour later and had a 4-inch incision on my right leg. I really was not in alot of pain. After all, I was drugged up and didn't have a care in the world. No sooner did I wake up, they were shoving me out the door. I saw the surgeon briefly before I left and he said that things went well. My incision was 4 inches long because they took 3 biopsies and the results would come in about a week or two. He said I would have a little discomfort, but it would heal well and once the scar healed, it would be barely noticeable. I was dressed and out the door with drugs. Once I got home, I was resting...and limping everywhere...but not in too much pain. My leg on the side was extremely numb, but the incision site didn't bother me much. I did notice, however, that I went home with some souvenirs, compliments of the Detroit VA Medical Center...just in case I wanted to check my heart from home. LOL
The next day, I was in pain and taking the NORCO that the doctor prescribed. It made me groggy and I did not like the feeling it gave me. I realized that I was also having a hard time going to the bathroom and still needed my husbands assistance getting up and walking around. Bless his heart for taking care of me. He was so patient. Later that second night, I noticed that I had blood in my urine and went to the hospital to get checked out. Yep...a urinary tract infection I had. Not only was I taking NORCO, which made me feel funny, but I was prescribed Cipro, a very strong antibiotic, which made me feel even funnier than before. I was hoping that I would adjust soon, because in the morning, I had to get up early and go to a job interview. NOPE! I got up, took my medications and before I knew it, I was back home resting. What happened at the interview, you ask??? Well, I am not sure...sort of. I barely remember driving there, barely remember the interview, and do not remember a thing about driving home. Not a good Idea to go to an interview high. Needless to say, I never heard from them again. I think that was the most embarrassing thing I ever did in my life (besides stay home from school after lunch in the first grade because I swore there was a bear at our back door).More testing and Biopsy updates:
Since the biopsy, I had seen the neurologist and she was the rudest doctor I had ever seen. She was originally seeing me for the headaches that this disease causes and did not want to deal with the whole situation at hand. I was a little disappointed because my rheumatologist had sent an order to get a cat scan as part of the testing for this disease, but piggy-backed off of my general practitioner's order to be seen for the headaches. She wasn't having anything to do with a two-part appointment and only wanted to treat me for the headaches that I was originally supposed to be seeing her for. So I left there with more drugs to take without any testing to be done. I have yet to take any of the anti-seizure drugs she gave me. Do I really need more drugs from a non-english-speaking, arrogant, over-paid guesser??? NOPE! At that time, I decided to wait until the next week when I aw my rheumy doc.
Update on surgery:
July 27th came and I was finally able to see the Rheumatologist. As soon as she saw me checking in, she ran back with excitement to check to see if the results of the biopsy were submitted. When she finally came in the room, she explained that (of course) the results were not submitted and she had to take some extra time to get the report from the pathologist. The news was semi-disappointing. Not that I wanted any bad news about the results, but it showed that I had mild atrophic fibers, scattered hyper contracted fibers, very minimal miopathies. Essentially, not much to go on. However, Dr. Mosely reassured me that this news was nothing to fear, but a new step in the direction of proving that not only did I have Dermatomyositis (DM), but since I had a near-clean muscle biopsy, they were leaning more toward the less sever version of the disease, which is called Amyopathic Dermatomyositis (ADM). That means that I have the disease, but it is only affecting the skin only. This is great news...sort of. It was explained to me that a diagnosis of ADM doesn't stop there. Now that they know I have DM, and it is the less sever version (ADM), they have to find the reason I have that disease in the first place. It was explained to me that the reason people get ADM is usually because of an underlying factor, such as illness and cancer. My next step would be to see the dermatologist, which is scheduled for August 6.
Other testing:
My surgery follow-up was August 4th. No news there since I already had seen the Rheumatologist and she gave me the results. I guess the only reason I went there was for them to tell me that my incision was healing good.
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| 4 days Post Surgery (July 24th |
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| August 4th |
What to look for on Part 2 of this blog post:
A visit to the Dermatologist and more testing.
Another diagnosis
A new treatment path
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