Back to the Rheumatologist

Of course Shane and I had an appointment with a Neurologist who specializes in Cancer patients last week. I'm pretty sure they removed his sense of humor somewhere along the the way...must be part of the "specialty"...Anyway asked me to do a bunch of things like walk a straight line (drunk!)...Repeat three words (totally forgot them after he said them).  I especially liked when he continually reminded me that I had a "Brain Injury"...I REALLY wanted to ask for a Handicapped Car Tag, but I chickened out....

When I finally got to talk I told about the pain all over my body - back, legs, arms, hips - everywhere...

Wait for it.....He reminded me that I had a.........BRAIN INJURY..... and he gave me a paper on Leg and Back Stretches...Now if I knew Origami, I would have turned that paper into a sword and cut off his P#N!$, but instead, I smiled and said, "Thank You, I'm certain this will be helpful."

So the pain continues to get worse - like Shane has to help me out of bed, worse...but I go away with a few friends and my two sisters just to a house here in Baton Rouge last weekend...on Saturday I take a shower and I get the "a-ha" moment...."Erythema Nodosum" is back...I know you are thinking I make this stuff up, but I really don't...If you check the post here (believe it or not it was just in January), I was diagnosed with "EN".  Naturally the Rheumatologist said it was probably a "one time" thing and I said "she drinks the Koolaid"....who won that one???

But I guess with Viral Meningitis and a Seizure in the way, EN slipped by mind.  But my nurse friend told me to call the Rheumatologist and make sure I could take the EN drugs since I've added so many new drugs to my diet.  It happened to be my doctor on call and she seemed very concerned and wanted me to come in right away for a lab work.  Lab work?  Like, are they related?  Could the meningitis have been prevented?  I'm trying to be calm asking these questions but I'm a little hysterical and crying....I'm sure she's wishing she wasn't on call....

So the appointment was on Tuesday and we go back on the 6th for the results, but it just hit me today that I could have a new career - since clearly a BRAIN injury and tax work don't mix.  Tuesday to Thursday - that's how long it took for me to really understand what the Rheumatologist was talking about - but had she used this example in the office, I would have known right away.  So there, I could come up with easy to understand methods to explain medical topics - done!  new career.....

oh, back to the topic....at first, I just had a white cake (EN back in December).  All the blood tests in the world were only going to show it as a white cake, but then you cut it into a million thin layers and put chocolate icing in between each layer and you pour chocolate icing over the entire thing and then you have Chocolate Doberge' (aka Heather's birthday cake).




So the doctor says when we put two flairs of EN with Viral Meningitis together with a whole bunch of other things she wrote down, we could have an Auto-Immune Disease.  She didn't speculate which one.  We did this in January, but now we have a few more cards stacked against us, so we'll just wait and see...again.

After cancer I started seeing a therapist who specializes in illness.  Last week I walked in, picked up the box of Kleenex and said, "I'm Done".  I just don't know what I will wake up to tomorrow...and the best thing she could tell me, and now I probably say it 200 times a day is, "At least it's me and not my children".  It doesn't make the aches and pains go away, but somehow it puts an end to the pity party real quickly.