I had a follow-up with the neurologist today who I have been seeing since the complications after my LSB on January 31st. It was a frustrating visit on many levels.

It was a nice long good talk that ended up giving me diddly. But at least the doc assured me that everything "useful" that could be done has been done. He doesn't think that admitting me to a local hospital will give me the answers that I need...he said I really need one of the big city centers and they made me an appointment for the earliest possible time that they could get me in (3 weeks away). He said running tests in the mean time would be worthless because the Northwestern will want to run their own tests (they apparently don't trust other test results). He was most concerned with the high heart rate and told me to keep track of that for the next few weeks and if it is consistently high then I may need to be admitted to a local hospital...but that would just be reacting to a symptom and trying to get it under control rather than giving me the diagnosis and treating the problem that is causing the problem.

Some of my bloodwork that the rheumatologist ran came back abnormal...so I made a follow up appointment with her next Wednesday (yet another week of waiting but apparently I have nothing else going on so...). The neurologist really thinks that it is probably some sort of connective tissue disorder. But he also thinks that the doc at Northwestern will probably admit me because my case is so complicated with so many things going on. I hope so...but I really don't know what's going to happen. The neurologist feels pretty confident that they have done everything they possible can at this point for me. So I just have to wait. And now I feel like I have done everything I can to get this process sped up. So I'll see the rheumatologist next week and see what she thinks about the blood work and what the neurologist had to say.

Also spoke to the neurologist about the amount of tylenol I have been taking (3000mg a day). He said that he really doesn't want to play with my meds because he seems to think that my symptoms will just sky rocket if he takes me off or lowers the dose of anything. Despite my low grade fevers he still doesn't think that I have any kind of infection. He did seem really shocked that I was taking Tramadol (ultram), tylenol, and meloxicam (mobic) all at the same time because he said they all do essentially the same thing. I explained that these (except for the tylenol) were what I was on for the CRPS in my left ankle. He still seemed to think that I shouldn't be on Ultram and Mobic at the same time...but then he's not a pain specialist so I don't put a lot of stock in that. He has his specialty and it is not related to CRPS (he was the one who told me it doesn't spread).

So I guess it's just sit and wait in pain while my symptoms all keep getting worse. It's very scary but the neurologist really seems very convinced that there is nothing left to do except follow up with the rheumatologist and wait until April 1st to see what the neurologist at Northwestern says/does. It's very frustrating that there's no way to speed up this process. I guess I just get to sit at home in pain and hope these symptoms don't kill me in the mean time or cause any permanent damage.