Roundup of the doctor visits

Finally, we have some progress on the medical front.

I wrote about the cardiologist the other day. The good news is that, now that I "know" that the chest pains are GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease), I can totally tell that it's reflux and not cardiac chest pains. The bad news is that, even on the medicine, it's not getting any better yet. You take the pill once a day and, I would say, it gives me some relief for about 12 hours, but, then it's pretty bad again. I'm giving it some time to see if a) it takes some time for the med to build up and b) if my stress eases, so will the bad reflux.

The other struggle on the cardiologist front is that insurance has not approved a couple of the tests he wants to do. It's not surprising, given that I'm a 39 year old woman, but, c'mon, chest pains and the other thing he found should be enough. Apparently it now has to go to a committee at the insurance company who will review everything and make a final decision.

The rheumatologist was OK. All of the major tests came back negative! The only wacky thing is that my sedimentation rate continues to rise and he doesn't know why. But, he kind of threw that ball into the court of the hematologist, who I saw today.

And, boy was he right in throwing that ball. Finally, finally I have some good news!! The hematologist DOES NOT think all of the weird blood things amount to a scary disease. She said that all of my weird blood results - Anti-M, sed rate, CRP -are all connected. Finally, we know that! There are two types of Anti-M antibody (which I originally wrote about a few weeks ago) and I have the type that IS NOT a problem in pregnancy! And she has a theory about why all of the results skyrocketed in the last two months and, are you ready for this, it's linked to my pneumonia in May!! Her theory is that it was caused by a rare infection and not the usual way you get pneumonia. In fact, she said that she is fascinated by my case because of all of the different components of it and how they all came together to give us the results we have now. She kept telling me how fascinating and rare it is to her!

Anyway, she took a lot of blood, and is running some really weird blood tests - said by both her and the woman who took my blood. They actually had to call the lab about one of the tests because they run it so infrequently. Cool, huh?

So, if these tests prove her theory, we should be in the clear! She said it should all clear out of my system in 3-4 months (I'll have to be monitored) and, most importantly, she sees no reason not to move forward with IVF #6!! I'll always have the anti-M, but, it won't be a problem. If her theory is not proven, she'll have to run some more tests, but, for right now, I feel positive and encouraged!!

The reflux and possible heart things are new, but, oh, it was so wonderful to sit with a doctor who could tie all of the weird blood results together that have been causing me such worry over the last couple of months! FINALLY!