Yes...it's 12:15 a.m. I fell asleep in front of the t.v. for four hours tonight so now I'm wired.
Turns out my endo appointment was today. They called the other day to remind me. So much for me making sure I put all this stuff on my calendar. So I go to see Dr. Jennings and I tell him the latest news...I tell him how I coerced McAndrew into running the blood tests and urine tests, and I tell him the story about McAndrew's office not reading the whole document. He looks at it and says that LabCorp didn't even run all of the tests...there's a section in there that lists tests, but no results. Now, one of the things I wanted McAndrew to check on the urine test was my cortisol levels to see if I had Cushings disease. The other tests were for a pheo, like Jim had. Now, I don't believe for one second that I have a pheo, but two doctors have mentioned that I should test for it, so I figured if I have to pee in a jar for 24 hours anyway, why not run that too. Dr. Jennings said the tests that LabCorp didn't do were some of the pheo tests, most likely because they would be affected by the acid level in the urine, and once they saw the level was too high they just stopped testing.
Remember how I've said in the past that when I bitch about my weight gain he just asks me if I exercise and is very dismissive? Well, he was actually in a compassionate mood today, which surprised me. I said to him, "Something is very wrong with my metabolism" and he says, "What makes you say that?" Now, I almost laughed at that point. What makes me SAY that? What have I been yammering on about for the last six months? Every appointment I say the SAME thing, but today he wants to listen? O.k. So I give him the rundown. AGAIN. Then he draws blood. Then he congratulates me on making McAndrew runs those tests, and says something to the effect of, "Most patients know when something's wrong, better than their doctors." Oh, no kidding buddy. Why didn't you think that way the LAST time I was pleading for help?
I didn't leave with any earth-shattering info from him because he likes to run the bloodwork first, then call you with the details later. The one thing I did leave the office with was a note from him to give to my shrink giving his permission for the shrink to take me off trileptal. I've been stuck between a rock and a hard place because 1) the shrink doesn't think I'm bipolar, but it was the thyroid freaking out that gave me the symptoms of bipolar, 2) the shrink wants to ultimately take me off the trileptal, 3) I have discovered that the thyroid meds are interfering with the action of the trileptal, because since my thyroid med dosage was upped on my last endo visit, the evening dose of trileptal doesn't make me sleepy anymore, 4) can the trileptal be preventing the thyroid meds from working properly? I don't know, but it's obvious they don't play well in the sandbox together, and 5) the shrink won't take me off the trileptal until my thyroid is stable. Since I'm still gaining weight for no reason he doesn't think my thyroid is stable. I tried backing off the trileptal myself a couple of weeks ago by a half a pill, and the next day I was crawling out of my skin, so I'm not doing that without help.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Sunday October 12, 2008 12:10 a.m.
When I called LabCorp's customer service line the other day to see if my 24-hour urine test was done, they told me yes, and it had been faxed over to McAndrew's office the day before. I asked if they could send me a copy of the test results. They don't send them to you unless you ask. Hey, I paid for them, or at least insurance did, so I'm entitled. They said they would pop them in the mail to me.
McAndrew's nurse called yesterday to say that my test was back and everything was normal. But today I get the actual test results in the mail, and in the section that spits out the numbers, those numbers ARE in the normal range; however, the results also say that the acid level in my urine was too high for an accurate measurement and I need to re-test. Now, McAndrew's nurse said nothing about that, and what do you want to bet they didn't even read the whole paper. Now, I had wanted the actual results, instead of just taking what the nurse said as gospel, because if it's any repeat of how they handled my thyroid tests they don't know squat. I had had my thyroid test done several times, and the TSH kept rising, which was significant coupled with the fact that I had thyroid anti-bodies, hence Hashimoto's, which McAndrew didn't bother to check for. I'd at least like to run these tests again in a few months to see if the numbers are climbing. Or maybe McAndrew deems them normal, but how close to the "line" are they? Since the results say I have to re-test, I'll just ask my endocrinologist to order them again. I'm due to go back in about a month. In the meantime that might give me enough time to see if the combination of vitamin D and my thyroid meds starts to give me some relief. Maybe I'll get lucky. But then this leads to another question....why is my urine too acidic? Just another question to try and get the answer to.
McAndrew's nurse called yesterday to say that my test was back and everything was normal. But today I get the actual test results in the mail, and in the section that spits out the numbers, those numbers ARE in the normal range; however, the results also say that the acid level in my urine was too high for an accurate measurement and I need to re-test. Now, McAndrew's nurse said nothing about that, and what do you want to bet they didn't even read the whole paper. Now, I had wanted the actual results, instead of just taking what the nurse said as gospel, because if it's any repeat of how they handled my thyroid tests they don't know squat. I had had my thyroid test done several times, and the TSH kept rising, which was significant coupled with the fact that I had thyroid anti-bodies, hence Hashimoto's, which McAndrew didn't bother to check for. I'd at least like to run these tests again in a few months to see if the numbers are climbing. Or maybe McAndrew deems them normal, but how close to the "line" are they? Since the results say I have to re-test, I'll just ask my endocrinologist to order them again. I'm due to go back in about a month. In the meantime that might give me enough time to see if the combination of vitamin D and my thyroid meds starts to give me some relief. Maybe I'll get lucky. But then this leads to another question....why is my urine too acidic? Just another question to try and get the answer to.
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