1st Doctor's Appointment

I had my very first doctor's appointment on September 5. After having to wait so long for the insurance to finally kick in, I was pretty excited to go to the doctor. I took the afternoon off, which was a good thing because I was there for quite a while. They were a bit busy, so I didn't even get in until about an hour after I was scheduled. I didn't even care. The nurses kept apologizing, but seriously. I did not even care.

 

When I finally got in, the nurse came in and briefly asked me what was going on and did her stuff, then left. Dr. Carlson came in shortly after, and asked to look at my hands. I showed him and he said, "I think I know what's going on." He then proceeded to ask me questions, so I got to start from the beginning and tell him everything. He'd ask me questions every now and then, then continue on. I felt like I got everything out, but it's kind of hard to remember EVERYTHING when you're not really sure what's part of it, and what's just a random pain. After talking to me and asking me questions for quite a while, he had me hop up on the bed thingy (not sure what it's called?) and he did just a brief exam. He checked my motion and ability to raise my arms, and tested my strength. Then he asked me to open my mouth so he could look inside, and when I did, he just kind of looked at me, then said, "Is that as wide as you can open it?" I told him yes, and then he told me that he thought that I might have scleroderma.

Now, rewind to almost a year ago (to date). Donna, one of my co-workers, and I would talk a lot about what was happening, because she was also having some random health issues as well. Well, she showed me this text she received from her daughter, who was trying to help her figure out what might be wrong. Donna said it sounded more like what I had, and showed me {an article} about it. I did quite a bit of research on scleroderma, as well as a million other diseases, and always seemed to come back to scleroderma. That article is one of the best ones I've seen about scleroderma as well. It explains what it is, as well as the symptons. But neither Donna or I are doctors, so what do we know really?

I almost laughed when he said that, because it sounded so familiar. He asked if we had any pictures of me before everything happened so he could compare. We got out our phones and showed him some pictures from about 2006 where I was smiling. He said that he noticed a lot of skin tightening (which is one of the main symptoms) around my mouth, eyes, and forehead. That is where the majority of skin tightening and discoloration is that I've noticed, though it is also on my arms as well.

(This is the photo we compared to...don't worry, one of these days I'll post a timeline of pics.)

He wanted to do some blood test and a urinalysis, and then he told me he was going to refer me to Dr. Walker, who is a rheumatologist. He called Dr. Walker to let him know about me and to see what specific blood tests he wanted to have done. It was kind of funny because one of the things he said was something like, "You can tell just by looking at her." And then he kind of apologized after. I didn't take offense to it. I know I look different. I know my lips are slowly thinning out and my face is really tight and my smile is stupid. It was just kind of funny.

We ended up going to the hospital to have the tests done, and Dr. Carlson also prescribed me Omeprazole to help with the acid reflux. Holy awesome stuff! It worked that first night. I should have done it sooner. Anyway, after the blood tests I got a call from Dr. Carlson's office saying that the earliest appointment Dr. Walker had wasn't until December, so they were going to talk to him and see if I could get in earlier. I was able to have an appointment scheduled for September 30. Sigh...more waiting, but at least we were going somewhere.

I received the results from my blood tests the next day. They confirmed I did have an auto-immune disease, but that more testing was required to know if it was Scleroderma, or something else.

You know, even though it took a year to get diagnosed, it was kind of a peace of mind to know that this was what it most likely was, and that I had something to research and learn more about. I'll most soon about my thoughts on this disease, and other things, but just want to get these posts out of the way.

I also have to say that Dr. Carlson was the best doctor. He is such a nice person, and I felt like he was legitimately concerned about me. He would ask questions and really tried to get to the root of the problem. I'm so grateful to him, his staff, and my boss for working it out so I could get in to see him. I look forward to having him as my primary doctor for the next however many years I can.