Tuesday update: my and others' health

[mrissa]

The visit to the neurologist confirmed several more things that are not wrong with me -- which was good, mostly; given an opt-in on lupus, for example, I think I would pass. (As would most people, including the ones who have it.) But we also didn't come up with a minor and easy-to-fix diagnosis. So I'm going on to an ENT. (Our experience with timprov indicates that ENTs are not always HASTY; we'll find out.) And consulting with my normal doctor again. So. There's that. On we go with that. timprov has declared me a member of the Hard To Diagnose Squad (or Brigade, I forget which). Sigh.

The other news is in the comments to my last post, though it is not news to me. EEEEEEEEE! she said with great avuncular dignity. EEEEEEEEEEE! I am looking forward to this, because mine is the fun job.

Comments

[ellameena.livejournal.com]

One would ideally hope to have a brilliant doctor who would scour the books for the correct diagnosis, and do all appropriate tests to have a conclusive diagnosis. But doctors are human, and you have specialists--so even if they are brilliant, you may not fall into their specialty. The solution, as far as I can tell, is to just keep going to the doctor, keep making an appointment, keep getting referrals. Eventually, a less-than-brilliant doctor will start looking up the 1% diagnoses, instead of ruling out the 90%. Good luck to you and know that you are in my prayers. I'm glad you don't have lupus. A doctor of mine said a very wise thing to me recently. He said, "I know you're disappointed that we didn't find anything to fix. Well, we can fix things, but we can't make it normal. It's better to be normal." Every normal test is a reason for celebration. They could treat your lupus, but they couldn't get rid of it. So, HOORAY!

[markgritter.livejournal.com]

Does avuncular really apply to aunts?

[markgritter.livejournal.com]

Perhaps "Materteral"?

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

What's an ENT?

You've probably thought of this already, but have you been tested for Lyme disease? Amy Tan had that, and my recollection is that it caused weird, off-the-book symptoms and she was tested for everything under the sun (including a false negative for Lyme) before she was finally diagnosed.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

An ear-nose-throat doctor.

I believe my doctor did run the indicator for Lyme disease, although I will ask her again when I'm in for my routine yearly unpleasantries next week.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

My dad would say you have Zachary's Disease.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

My mom and I had a variation on this conversation, too. And it looks like most of the worst stuff is stuff we're ruling out first. I'm just as glad not to have a straightforward, easy-to-diagnose brain tumor!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

All right, I'll bite: what's Zachary's Disease?

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

But they are also prone to saying, "Hoom, hoom!"

[songwind.livejournal.com]

< German Accent >Ve don't know zachary vhat it is you got!< /German Accent >

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

I've been reading about your health investigations and thinking of you.

[fiddledragon]

*chuckle* join the club :) I vote Brigade...gives us the feeling of a little more structure ;)

[pavel-lishin.livejournal.com]

My friend's girlfriend had lupus. What is it, exactly? The way he described it is that it's like AIDS, but sounds cooler.

[pavel-lishin.livejournal.com]

Also, true or false: you contract it by fucking a wolf.

[pameladean]

Whoo, impending auntitude! And no lupus!

P.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I called my dad to tell him that. It is his kind of joke.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yes, I will keep track of how long it takes them to say good morning.

[scottjames.livejournal.com]

Isn't it everyone's dad's kind of joke?

Still thinkin' 'bout you. Take care.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

:) Maybe it's a 70's Dad thing.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Unusually martial for you, though.

[fiddledragon]

yeah well...at some point one gets sick and tired of taking a less active less tolerant view of ones apparent incapacities and frustrations.

[columbina.livejournal.com]

There was a word column in the local paper a Sunday or two ago bemoaning the fact that uncles get the good words. I'm not sure it was "avuncular" they were grousing about, but a similar situation.

There are other fields to mine for coinages as well. (http://www.funtrivia.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=440423&an=0&page=0)

[columbina.livejournal.com]

Lupus is an autoimmune deficiency. That is, your immune system goes nuts and starts doing strange things to your own body (which makes it not just quantitatively but qualitatively different from AIDS, where your immune system essentially stops working and you become susceptible to all manner of nasties that healthy humans just shrug off).

Lupus causes "inflammation." However, if you've ever stopped to consider the number of things you can treat with a simple anti-inflammatory (eg. aspirin), you see that "inflammation" can cover a wide ground, and the reason that lupus is often tricky to diagnose is that it can look like anything from benign skin rashes to rheumatoid arthritis. Furthermore the symptoms can change over time in a single individual.

I know this because I have a friend who spent a lovely two years with Zachary's Disease (thank you, songwind, that was great) and lupus was one of the scarier front-runners.

The Lupus Foundation's FAQ (http://www.lupus.org/education/faq.html), for further light reading.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

When some of my Gustavus friends would make particularly bad jokes, we would accuse them of going to Daddy School. We had a whole hierarchy in mind, who was far enough along to be allowed to TA at Daddy School.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

If this was the case, we could have ruled it out immediately, thanks.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Thank you.