I had what may have been my last appointment with the rheumatologist on Monday. He’s done as full of a workup as he could do. But as he said, and I quote:
“You’re not exactly the easiest case…I’m baffled.”
There was a conversation between the two statements, but that pretty much summed up my visit.
My bloodwork and the other tests have been suggestive but not conclusive of anything. My rheumatologist ruled out pretty much all of the big-name autoimmune diseases he’d been looking for. When I told him I’d stopped taking the colchicine he’d wanted to try me on for suspected urticarial vasculitis because the side effects were worse than the symptoms – and it hadn’t even seemed to help at all – he was out of ideas.
So my rheumatologist said he will tell my primary care doctor that he recommends I see a hematologist to try to make sense of my lab work. He said I can come back and check in with him in six months. He’s leaving the practice he’s in now, though, and I’d have a 30-minute drive instead of a 5-minute drive to see him. If he can’t do anything for me, I probably won’t make the new appointment.
It would’ve been nice to have a more specific diagnosis than arthritis, but it wouldn’t be worth it if it wasn’t the right diagnosis.
So it’s still chronic fatigue syndrome, an unexplained rash I’ve had for 25 years, and now arthritis. So many catch-all, non-specific ailments. So frustrating.
Read my Big Fat Medical Update for more details.
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