Steinbox

Saw Dr. Plansky on Friday…he called Dr. Farmer (chief at Strong who was at Cleveland for 30 years) and basically told him he’d better give helping me another shot.  Dr. P was not impressed that the GI Unit at Strong gave up on me…he got Dr. Farmer to agree to see me again, and to say that if he can’t help me, he will personally get me into Cleveland sooner.  If only he’d had this attitude when I saw him in January…

Now at this point, I’m not sure how much sooner he could get me in anyhow…my appointment is supposed to be the 27th and I’ll be seeing Dr. Farmer the 14th…so he’s going to get me in, what, two days sooner?  I suppose there is the chance that he can help me, but he already told me he can’t and that I should go to Cleveland, and after that all the GI’s at Strong had a conference about me and they all gave up…so I don’t really even want to keep this appointment, but Dr. P wants me to.

We also showed Dr. P some new skin things going on with me that have developed in the past month or so…one being that in the evenings my hand gets hot, swells up, turns red and develops a weird rash.  This happens three or four evenings a week for a few hours, always the same hand.  I still write down everything I eat and cannot pinpoint a certain food that could be causing it.

As this doesn’t occur during the day, Ben put the pictures on a jump drive for the doctor, who thought that was the coolest thing ever!!  I’ve also developed some strange acne on my cheeks, which doesn’t really bother me, but I thought these things worth mentioning in case they are linked to the GI issues…

Dr. P says they are definitely related and became very excited…he says these could be the clues to finally solving this and got me in immediately so see a dermatologist.  I’ll be seeing her Monday morning, then taking her opinion with me to Dr. Farmer on Wednesday.

I also convinced my insurance company to assign me a new case manager, and this new guy, Dave, is wonderful!  He’s a nurse, and it turns out he used to work with Dr. P.  Dave is going to try to get my probiotic approved…we are currently paying $70/month for that one supplement alone, so even if they put our standard $40 copay on it, it will save us $30/month.  We should hear about that in a week or so.

We are holding off on making travel arrangements for Cleveland until we know for sure when we’ll be going…so at least two more doctors appointments this week…