When bad news is good

Today I saw Dr McLovely again, I actually told her that I call her Dr McLovely in my blog and, living up to her name, she blushed!

She had all my test results back and there were some not so nice results.

Quincy MD I'm not, so my grasp of the significance of all these things is tenuous at best but here is the upshot...

Whatever indicates a possible auto-immune disease was elevated.

Something to do with my thyroid was wrong and she said my brain was having to work very hard (no news there) to try and get my thyroid to produce enough of whatever makes my metabolism metabolize.  This makes perfect sense because I have always been what the old cow cockies (beef farmers) would call an "easy keeper".  I don't eat very much but I don't lose weight either.  I'm not the size of a barn or anything but I am generously proportioned.

The thingy (that is a technical term for those of you who are uninitiated) that indicates Celiac Disease was high.  Potentially this could account for the fatigue and what I had presumed to be a touch of IBS.

My sugar levels were elevated on a fast test which could indicate diabetes.  I told her about my weird sugar stuff from when I was pregnant.  I used to go to my pre-natal checkups every month and every month my sugar levels were elevated on the pee test so dutifully I would trot across the road to the path lab for a blood test and every month my blood sugar was fine.  Dr McLovely is an expert at that breeding stuff, pregnancy, family planning etc and she laughed when I told her this and informed me that I had had Gestational Diabetes which apparently makes a woman predisposed to develop real diabetes later in life.

There were few other odds and sods... apparently I have at some time had glandular fever (news to me!)  Naughty cholesterol is high, nice cholesterol is too low (the bad guys are in the lead in the cholesterol Stupidbowl apparently).

NOW - a "normal" person might come out of the surgery reeling from news like this, they might be HORRIFIED or even TERRIFIED!!!  But, as anyone who has dealt with Fibromyalgia symptoms knows - we are far from normal!  When you live your life with a myriad of unpleasant problems that have no known cause and no known cure it does strange things to your mindset.  It makes you sometimes almost wish that you had one of the trendy, clearly defined, conditions.  Something that is easy to explain to other people; something that has a well publicized name; something that can be nailed down with a specific test; something that potentially can be CURED!

I'm not very keen on the idea of having diabetes; I lost a very close family friend (almost a sister) through complications of diabetes earlier this year at the tender age of 52.  I'm not keen on having thyroid issues or Celiac Disease.  I'm particularly not keen on having some kind of auto-immune disease (the idea of my white blood cells attacking some part of me is like a bad B Grade horror movie in my mind).  Still, let's face it Fibromyalgia is not a pic-a-nic with Yogi and Boo Boo either.

In spite of blood tests up the wazoo over the last two years no one has ever seen these results before, maybe Dr McLovely ordered a more comprehensive series of tests, maybe Aussie path labs are better, maybe all these wonderful problems are all new... I don't know.

The possibility is that some of these things might explain some of the fibro symptoms and that some of these things might be manageable with diet or meds, some of them might even be curable...  Of course I have been dancing with chronic pain for most of my life... long before Dr MingDynasty decided to call it Fibromyalgia so I don't really hold out much hope that these things are INSTEAD of the FMS.  Most likely they are in addition to FMS... but still an explanation, however limited, is a welcome piece of news.

Wouldn't it be cool if they could up my thyroid dooverhickey (another technical term - look it up!) and increase my metabolism?  Maybe I could become trim, taught and terrific and all the eligible lesbians in Sydney would suddenly be bashing down my door!

So back for more blood tests in the morning - glucose tolerance etc...  I made an appointment with the Immunologist, I think it is for January 2031 (He is a VERY important person).  They told me they process their cancellations every Friday morning so I have set an alarm to remind myself to annoy them weekly.  They asked if I wanted to see him about chronic fatigue or allergies...  I said I have fatigue and auto-immune irregularities and this stuff is ruining my life and that 2031 is just not soon enough!  Hence the suggestion to call on Friday mornings (silly woman telling me that - she'll rue the day!)

Just a side note - anyone in Sydney or environs there is a rally to Re-Occupy Sydney at Noon this Sat at Town Hall and if I can drag my exhausted arse out of the house I will be there!

NB - My lovely American friends I was only kidding about the Path Labs
and
The immunologist appt is 2012... ok forgive me, so I exaggerated a little!