My new doctor apparently hasn't been in the office much this week. I played phone tag with another doctor until this afternoon when we FINALLY connected. This other doctor wasn't worried about the gallstones. She said, "we won't need to do surgery since you aren't having any symptoms".
Ummmmm....hello? The symptoms are why I went to the doctor in the first place!
She explained that I could have had both heartburn AND the gallstones. So, I can go out of town as planned and just try to control any pain through diet (no fat). I've been doing that the past couple of days and it's worked pretty well. Of course, trying to eat a low-fat diet in the deep South might prove to be a greater challenge.
As a side note, Meghan commented on the last post that lots of bloggers are having this gallstone issue. Apparently, it's very common for women to get them after having their first child - something about the hormones. While I haven't had a kid, I HAVE been pumping myself full of hormones, so that kind of makes sense. Because literally, that is the ONLY explanation for me having gallstones. The only other risk factor I have is being female.
But, this other doctor wasn't calling me about the gallstones. She wanted to order more tests because there were "lesions" on my gall bladder and kidney. She said they aren't that worried about the kidney because it's just a "1 sonometer mangionoma" (or something). Oh right. Of course. Silly me. When pressed, she told me that meant it was just a small benign mass of cells. She wants me to have a CT scan for the one on the gall bladder, though. (For those of you who like to worry - I'm sure everything is fine, honestly, but I want you to understand the feeling I had this afternoon.)
She said, "Well, you know how radiologists are..." (No, actually I don't.) "...they think everything is cancer, so take this with a grain of salt."
Okay, did you just use the "C" word with me and then tell me not to worry about it? I'm sorry, but that is just WRONG. To be fair, she also said it could be from the gallstone rubbing against it. (So that is what I'm going with.) And, since she didn't sound worried about it, I'm not going to worry about it either. Because really, what does that accomplish? I did go ahead and schedule the CT scan for right when I come back. When I called to make the appointment, they asked me several times if I was sure there wouldn't be any chance I'd be pregnant. I laughed out loud at that one!
My bloodwork came back mostly normal - no ulcers, no celiac disease, etc. BUT my autoimmune antibody panel (which I didn't even know they were doing) came back elevated and I was positive for anti-nuclear antibodies. Not sure if that's just from the Hashimoto's or not, but I mentioned that I've wanted my RE to do that test (or at least ask if they've already done it), so she was making copies of everything for me and putting them in the mail. She also offered to do further testing if I wanted it.
Wouldn't it be funny if a terrible case of heartburn caused them to figure out why in the hell I'm infertile? I won't hold my breath, but it sure would be interesting.
So on Sunday, I get to go back to Stone Mountain, GA for a few days and then, as a bonus, I get to see Michael again! Hooray! He mentioned that as of Sunday, it will be 100 days until all this is done. 100 days - I can do that.
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4 comments:
Doctors just have no tact sometimes...there should be a few more classes on bedside (or phoneside) manner in med school
Glad you're still going to be able to go away and see the man. And hoping the CT scan is just a precaution and nothing comes of it
Oh my goodness. Good luck with all that! I'll be thinking of you. :)
I agree about it not being cool for them to just drop the C word casually. It is NOT a casual word. I'll be staying tuned for additional updates.
I didn't read for a couple of weeks and this is certainly not what I was expecting to find! I agree with your diagnosis, all the hormones you have been taking simulate pregnancy and post partum hormonal storm enough that it is the very probably cause, but really they could have avoided mentioning "C" alltogether. I dated a radiologist, I worked with radiologists for many years, and yes, they are pessimistic and tend to over diagnose anything in doubt....so I want to also think that all this is b/c of the tons of hormones you have been subjected to and all the otehr symptoms are related to the stones and enlarged gallbladder, diet should really help and often then can break the stones with ultrasounds or just the stones dissolve with the right kind of diet/treatment.
I hope the time with Michael will lift all this worries and that when you come back and have the scan they will find that everything is alright.
I will keep checking here as well
hugs
Giulia
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