I need a happy place

I had my followup appointment with Dr. Garcia yesterday. I suppose that it went well enough.

She had 3 pages of test results. Part of me was terrified. Part of me was praying that something was there that would explain all. To a point, I should have expected the results that came back.

All normal. Except 2. The two odd results were extremely high levels of antinuclear antibodies and moderately low levels of methylmalonic acid (MMA). At least I think that last one is right. Low levels of MMA are a sign of vitamin B-12 deficiency and high levels of antinuclear antibodies could mean several things. Most of which aren’t exactly good news (ie: multiple sclerosis, lupus, fibro), you get the idea.

From all of the symptoms I have, it could be any of those. Not exactly a happy thought. She is referring me out to a neurologist and having me get a second MRI done (the first being in May ‘06). She wants to see if the lesions they found in ‘06 have changed, if there are more, or if there is a pattern to them.

So until then, she’s put me on B-12 supplements. We’ll see how that goes.

Well, that didn’t quite work as planned

One of the new drugs Dr. Garcia prescribed for me for the pain was a drug called Ultram. I was told it was non-narcotic, non-habit forming and had very few side effects. I figured if it made the damn pain go away, I’d give it a go.

I don’t sleep very well when taking new medications (my freaky side again), so the first night probably isn’t a good indication of how well the med worked. Though I suppose it was ok. However, the next day was not so good. I had a “hangover” for most of the day. When I called Dr. Garcia, I was told to take the medication earlier in the evening (6pm instead of right before bed) to see if that helped.

Oh good lord have mercy. So not a good thing to do. (We’re guessing here, but since the drug is time released, we believe that there was too much in my system at one time which made me react the way I did.) People I felt high as a freaking kite. I still felt like I had all of my cognitive abilities, but everything was in super freaky slow motion, my brain had decided to take a vacation…you get the picture. Basically I had just about every damn side effect there was.

Needless to say, I stopped taking it all together. It wasn’t worth it. Yes, I only took it twice, but had a bad experience each time, so yeah…I’m a big wuss. Though I may end trying it again if we can’t find anything else that works.

Oh and the Nexium, yeah, that didn’t work quite so well either.

So I’m back to my old drugs…Protonix, Zantac, Advil and Tylenol. Yeah me.

I’m in love

In my last post I bitched and moaned about my previous doctor. I was serious when I said I would never go back to him. One Elana Gracia was recommended to me. I don’t think I can ever repay Danielle for giving me her name.

Dr. Garcia is…divine. I pph her!

Both she and her assistant Alicia sat with me for close to an hour and a half. She listened to everything. She cursed. *sigh* She actually said “What the fuck” (referring to my last doctor visit).

Now, I admit, once all of the talking was done, she was a bit clueless. I mean, how could anyone (besides House) come up with a diagnosis with all the shit I’d just spilled out, on the spot. However, she was about to rectify some of that cluelessness. I kid you not when I say they took no less than 20 vials of blood. *gah* She was testing me for anything and everything. Hormones, thyroid, any type of deficiencies, etc. I should know in a few weeks what the results are.

In the meantime…she’s put me back on birth control and she’s having me try Nexium (the Purple Pill), and a drug called Ultram. We’ll try them and see what happens.

Wish me luck.