Janieg, that's just not right...on so many levels

Someone posted - maybe on this thread, maybe another - that doctors don't like dealing with problems they can't fix. The poster went on to say that the patients can be challenging or demanding. I just don't see that as an excuse, just a cover-up for a bad doctor who should switch to working in research without seeing patients. Ask anyone in sales or customer service if they like everyone they deal with. You'll watch them rolling on the floor with laughter. What do they do? They suck it up, look for something positive to say and move on. If we demand that of our minimum wage workers, how come can we cannot expect our specialists to do half as well?

I've been facing medical issues similar to this since 1998. Only once did I have a super-specialist say to me, "I don't know what went wrong, so I don't know what to do to make it right or make sure it doesn't happen again. Because of that, I will waive our [$525!] consultation fee." He was a gem. The rest are disgraceful.

Climbing carefully off my soapbox now.

Gentle hugs

One of the most caring doctors I've seen was a gastroenterologist. I wasn't seeing him because of the neuropathy, but he asked me a ton of questions about it and about what all testing I'd had done. I could tell he felt bad about all I'd been through, and also felt bad because I'd been referred to him for what he felt was a ridiculous reason. He was also the only one who has expressed concern about my low ferritin levels and decided to test me for silent celiac diseaase as that can cause both low ferritin and neuropathy. I was negative, but I can't tell you how nice it was to see doctor who actually expressed interest.

My repeat ANA titer came back at 1:160 (half of what it was). According to person who told me the results (won't get physical copy of report for a few weeks), everything else rheumatologic was negative. I've got a Rheum appointment in September (first available - crazy, right?) but I think that's a rabbit hole.

My B6 level was "mildly elevated," at 57 when this lab's range has 22 as a high. That sounds more than mildly elevated (3X the high), but what do I know. I've been taking a multi [B6 = 2mg], but no other supplementation. I will stop the vitamin today. I do eat a lot of the foods that are high in B6 tho - nuts, beans, chicken, spinach.

I don't eat processed foods and thought they were healthier options. If I'm feeling this miserable b/c of eating healthily, I'm damn-well switching to mac & cheese with brownies & ice-cream for dessert. I'm sure this will be retested in 6 months or so, and I suspect it will be another rabbit hole. I'm not lucky enough to have something easy to treat.