Medical update.

[rivka]

I went to the rheumatologist today. (Read about the continuing saga.)

I had carefully rehearsed the visit in my mind, beforehand. In my imagined version, the rheumatologist said, "Why are you taking up my office hours when I have sick people to see? There's nothing wrong with you. People have elevated ANAs for no reason. Go home and don't worry about it anymore." I was hoping that the power of my will would bend reality to match my imagnary rehearsal. It worked pretty well.

I liked the rheumatologist. He achieved the proper mixture of friendly and respectful, and he seemed to be very thorough. I'd had to fill out a multi-page form with my health history, and he carefully went through and asked me about everything. He said I won the award for the most surgeries he'd ever seen done on a single hip. (I'm so proud. I'd like to thank God, my parents, and my agent surgeons.) He was fascinated by the configuration of my arm and hand, and spent a lot of time looking at them and moving them around. (I didn't have the heart to point out that they weren't exactly part of his purview, as they weren't exhibiting any kind of inflammatory response. I figure that the more alternative configurations doctors see, the better informed they are.) He examined me thoroughly, and made my doctor fax him more of my labs - the ones she hadn't sent because they weren't obviously autoimmune related..

And his conclusion? "The most common reason for an elevated ANA is 'we don't have any idea.' You don't have any other symptoms of lupus. Your aches and pains all seem pretty reasonable, given the amount of surgery you've had. I don't think you have an autoimmune disorder, but we'll run some more tests just to be certain."

One of the tests he ordered was for thyroid antibodies. Apparently thyroid trouble hasn't been ruled out by the normal TSH test; the thyroid antibody test will reveal if thyroid-attacking processes that would eventually affect my TSH level are actually happening now.

I feel okay about this. I expect that the elevated ANA test will just turn out to be one of those things. I did go ahead and have blood drawn for the other tests, but I'm not really going to be holding my breath waiting for the results. Good rheumatologist.

Comments

Whew!

[peaberry.livejournal.com]

Isn't it nice to have a good, competent doctor and have them tell you reassuring things?

Yay!!!

[saoba.livejournal.com]

I will now think very fond and happy thoughts of your good doctor and hoping you feel less achey thoughts at you.

I gotta ask ...

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Because I'm just a curious sort of person. What's odd about your arm?

Re: I gotta ask ...

[rivka.livejournal.com]

The right arm is half as long as the left. The elbow is fused at about a 120 degree angle. The wrist and fingers move fine, but the shoulder is somewhat restricted in range of motion. The hand is smallish, although the fingers are of roughly the same length as on my left hand. I don't have a right pinky finger, or any room on my right hand where a pinky would go.

It was a birth defect of unknown cause.