First we went to the podiatrist and he takes one looks at Alan's feet and says "Oh they look beautiful"!!! I look at him like he lost his marbles, and I say "they're beautiful, he has psoriasis, and god knows what else on his toes, they're beautiful???" the doctor burst out laughing and said "oh yeah, but for Alan, today they are beautiful. There is no sign of an infection, and the ulcer is all healed (underneath). Now we have to make a decision whether to operate and shave the bone, because if you asked me right now, I'd say Alan's foot is just fine and he doesn't need any operation, but we've been doing this back and forth for 8 months, but honestly TODAY IS THE BEST HIS FEET HAVE LOOKED".

So I said "why not wait until the next visit and if you see the ulcer starting up again, you'll have your answer and we can make a good decision". The doctor looks at Alan and says "thank god you married her". Alan burst out laughing.

He also said that the best psoriasis medicine is something over the counter called PHOTOTAR. I'm going to look it up. Believe me, if Dr. Baird likes a med, I'll get the med. He cured my nail fungus with a bottle of something called Gordochom that he sells out of his office. Best $12 I ever spent.

So then we leave this doctor and go and see Dr. Fred (who is now my primary care physician but since I don't have my MediBlue card yet, I have not see him officially yet).

So we go there and we take off Alan's shoes and socks and he sees that there WAS SWELLING but that it is significantly improved.

We discussed Lyrica and he said "unfortunately, that's the one big side effect of lyrica, the fluid retention".

I had brought the pancake syrup with me to show him the sodium content and told him Alan was eating Blueberry muffins at Dunkin Donuts and they had a lot of sodium. The doctor said "His ankles are not swollen right now (this was at 3:30 p.m.) so in the past few days they have gone down dramatically.

Alan has decided (for now) to go off the lyrica and see what happens. He will take a sleeping pill at night because that is when the PN is the worse.

The doctor said "that's fine, so give it a week and if you need to be back on lyrica, you can go back on". I asked "what if he swells up again"? I said "will you give him lasix" He said "I really don't like to put Alan on any more drugs and really, I'm looking at his ankle and it has all gone down so it might have been the added sodium that he wasn't used to or it could be the lyrica. Let's just wait and see". I then asked "so we watch his feet for a week, and if they well up again, I call you". He said: "Absolutely, but I really don't think that's going to happen, he looks really good"


Alan says "what do you mean I look good, I'm fat, look how bloated my stomach is". Dr. Fred starts laughing and said "Alan, you lost 70 lbs, that's excess skin". Alan can go back to the gym so he's ecstatic about that!!!

THEN HE LOOKS AT ALAN AND SAYS" "Aren't you glad you are married to this woman, she takes such care of you"??. Alan and I burst out laughing

Now we get to ME!!!!
Dr. Fred knows I am going to Cornell for my full 2nd year workup. The plan was to go to Cornell, get all results and then officially go to Dr. Fred and make him my primary care physician.

So there I was in his office (with Alan as the patient of record today, right?). I asked Dr. Fred. Do you have a moment, I'd like to discuss some of my test results with you now even though I don't have an appointment".

He said "sure, what's the matter, I said well, my uric acid is high and my urea nitrogen is out of whack, and I have the test results with me".

He immediately said "show me". I took all the results out of my bag and he's reading all my tests results and he immediately goes "hm hm , oh, your numbers are great, this is good this is good, "oh, I see what you mean, this looks like dehydration to me". Drink more water" I said "yeah, I know about rehydration now. Then I explained about the blood presure pill I'm on with the water pill in it and he says "Okay, don't worry about these test results, I really do think this is dehydration, but go to Cornell and speak to them and show them these tests. They'll probably take you off the portion of the blood pressure pill that has the water pill on it. They'll see how that goes".
Then when you get all your results, come back here as a patient, we'll run all new blood tests in March. Okay??" I said "I love you." He laughed.

He took the time to read my tests and I didn't even have an appointment with him. He takes the time to speak to you as a human being and he listens.
He also went out and brought back some more samples of plavix for Alan and said "don't worry, I will put more away for you for the next time.

Soooooooo, I now have a brand new primary care guy who looks like Arnold Schwartznegger but has the compassion and the grace of a Mother Theresa,.

I feel very very fortunate that we are in the hands of such good guys.
And I get to go to Cornell too!!!!

So Alan feels good, his ankles and feet are no longer swollen and he is off Lyrica (for how long, we don't know).

So right now I'm so hungry I could eat a cow.

Will have grilled chicken.

Thanks for all the info guys.

Love, Melody

Hi Melody:

Things sound much better for both of you. So drink more water already...

Shirley H.

I'm drinking, I'm drinking.

I am thinking about moving to New York... You guys all seem to have such great docs there.
Cathie

Good girl!

Shirley H.