As many of you know, Anime has been having health problems for over a year now. You can read about it here and here and even here. Her orthopedist, after determining that her knee is just fine, felt that further investigation was needed into why she has constant pain, why she's always so tired, and why minor infections knock her out health-wise. Much blood was again sacrificed to the vampires of the lab for spinning and culturing and whatever else it is they do for blood work. The results? Due to some items that showed up in her blood (in large concentrations) the thinking is now that she may have lupus or possibly rheumatoid arthritis, or something along the lines of an autoimmune disease.
A couple of rheumatology offices in our area flat out refused to see her because they don't take patients under the age of 16. What!? She'll be sixteen is a year! Another of the offices said to fax over her labs and they would review them before making the decision of whether or not to see her. If they don't we will be forced to drive 3 1/2 to 4 hours away to find a pediatric rheumatologist. No matter who sees her she will have to undergo more testing to determine what it is that's ailing her.
While I feel relieved that someone believes me when I say that something is wrong with her, I'm also tremendously worried and scared that something is really wrong with her! Of course I scurried home to research lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and various other autoimmune diseases that one would need a rheumatologist for. It knocked me silly to see that she hit almost all of the symptoms for lupus other than a couple that I don't know because she hasn't had those tests run yet. I'm not a doctor and I'm not diagnosing her but this is what the referring doctor thought might be the problem, and after reading what I've read, I'd have to side with him because so much of it fits. And that scares me. No matter what it is, it scares me. My baby, my first born that is so like me, more than likely has some disease that she will have to deal with for the rest of her life.
She's not scared. Too her it's just one more doctor we will have to go see and, KEWL! she will probably get to miss school to go for the appointment. She's like it to be in one of the cities farther away so that we could go shopping (oy! teenage girls!)
I hope that I am over-reacting to all of this, I really do. I want a healthy life for her. But my gut tells me that there's something wrong, a healthy teenager wouldn't be feeling the way she does, wouldn't have constant leg pain, be tired after sleeping for 12 - 14 hours at a time, run unexplained fevers, be scarily pale, have rashes that come and go, chest pain and trouble breathing when the chest X-ray shoes no pneumonia or bronchitis.
Keep your fingers crossed and send good vibes this way please, that we can get in to see the doctor here in town. Hope that we can get a definitive diagnosis when we do see someone so that she can start on some course of treatment and maybe she will start to feel more like a regular teen.
4 comments:
I hope you get answers soon. I think one of the worst things is not knowing. Our imagination usually is much worse than the reality. Sending good vibes your way!
I am sending good vibes your way. I know how you are feeling and every little bit of good karma helps!
Sending all the good energy your way. I'm holding consciousness that the best doctors will be available to correctly diagnose the problem and provide excellent care so whatever this is affects her as minimally as possible. HUGS
Oh no. I hope for her sake and yours too that y'all can figure out what it is. It's so much better when you can treat the actual problem rather than just the symptoms. I'll be think of you both.
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