Well, my rheumy went crazy over the fact I am on minocin. How dare my primary stray into what he is treating. Funny, minocin is first an acne medication, so if I had had acne, then it would have been okay?
Then we discussed my osteoporosis, and my primary hasn't been in touch with him over what has happened the past 3 months. That surprised me, so I will have to address that with her. So, he is taking over the osteo, so I guess rheumatologists are suppose to treat osteo, and changed my medication - he isn't a fan of Boniva either. I signed a release of info from my primary over to him. He only wanted the bone density results, but I including the doctor's notes, so he can read about the third opinion I had, who totally disagreed with him.
He raised my MTX, my anemia is back, but I was borderline anyway. I went sero-positive again. My ESR was elevated again. My white cell count has been steadily dropping for a good year, and finally turned into low.
He suddenly turned into a doctor and is doing alot more testing in two months, on osteoporosis and Vitamin D. Asked me how much calcium I am getting, there's a first.
Then I drove to work, and came home and took a big nap. I am still laughing about how he put AP and minocin down, called it worthless, that "nobody" around here does that. Hmm, I got four names from Road Back. I was smart not to ask him first.
Don't worry, you cannot please everyone but.....and I do say ...but...as an exception, and that is in keeping your RD happy can have it's benefits. But ( yep "but" again) it is your body and that has to be taken into account as well.
The entire idea is to get from sick and in pain and flaring to the point of being well with low pain and minimal damage. It is a tight rope act and hard to accomplish.
jode
I am so sorry that this is how he treated you. You are smart to persue your own treatment. That is what is important, b/c he is NOT in charge of you body. You are even though we have NO CONTROL!!!
Hugs to you, and I am glad you are laughing about it.
Cathy,
There are 4 different vitamin D level tests. I've had all done but never actually looked at the results. The ratio's are the key. Make sure he gets all 4 of the tests run.
Hugs,
Pip
P.S. He's a MORON! LOL
are these lab resultsfrom being on ABX.therapy? Or from the increase in mtx? sorry i am not following here. are you still taking ABX> therapy? how long have you been on ABx?
kel
Kel - I started the AP/antibiotics 8 weeks ago. My rheumy said to come back in 2-3 months, he didn't care, so I went 3 months. Then I asked my primary for the minocin/ABX. She looked into and said why not, and its really working well. The bleeding nose ulcers I have had for five years that I was given an ointment for took almost six weeks on the antibiotic to finally clear up. And my body temperature and chills and fevers are improving dramatically.
The lab results are a duplicate of results from say four visits back. And they aren't as bad of numbers as four visits ago (so let's say nine months ago). I was borderline (just one point off anemia) anyway. So no, these results are not from the antibiotic, they are fairly close to what I have been having anyhow. My WBC has been steadily declining since I first saw him 16 months ago, and this testing period finally went one point under the low.
But boy, did this rheumy jump into doctor mode all of a sudden. I had told my primary I thought he was lazy (never did baseline xrays or bone density or any other testing), and suddenly he is all over this one. So perhaps my decision to overstep him got his attention.
We left on good terms and he actually gave me an additional 15 pills on my seizure medication because it was going to run out and I didn't notice it was no refills left, and my primary is out on Fridays, then the pharmacy needs to call so it would have been Tuesday before it could get filled. And you aren't suppose to stop it cold turkey.
I think he and I are getting along fine now. :) He told me two months, no more "I don't care when you come back" statements.
LOL about the 'come back' in 2 months thing.
Kel -
It is not uncommon (frankly it is common) for your labs to jump up when you start AP. We call it 'when your disease becomes unstable'. I think of it as the microbes are doing a last ditch attempt to stay alive. So RF can jump, CCP can jump (mine did) and it can do so all the way thru the process. That's why AP docs are constantly pulling labs - they want to verify that you are moving in the right direction most of the time. Does that make sense?
Pip
P.S. Cathy is having a very, very easy time of AP. It may not feel like it now - but she's hardly herxing. Probably because she has a scleroderma/MCTD diagnosis. The rest of us just have to take it on faith until we get an 'ah-ha' moment. For me, it was opening my milk jug by myself. For another friend, it was combing her hair.
My daughter was three when she started AP. One way I knew it was working - she started singing every time she played by herself. I remember the ped rheum preaching 'gloom and doom' to me once on the phone, and telling him, "No, she's fine. Listen, can't you hear her singing?" Children who feel bad do not sing spontaneously, joyously, like that. Wow, thanks for the update. It sounds like things are finally starting to