update on my dr visit...

When i left you this morning I was struggling with the decision of whether or not to see my regular doctor - not the one who frustrated me, the one I really like who is really a Physician's Assistant and not a doctor which means she actually LISTENS to you. I decided... that it would be a good idea to get a professional opinion besides the urologist... especially since I won't actually see the urologist until Monday.

I barely made it half a day today at work... I took a lot of notes about my pain, where it hurts, what kind of pain it is... I went into my visit loaded for bear, notes in hand... and she was great. She thinks that *although there are kidney stones* they are NOT the primary cause of my pain. Her main reason for this is my pee is clear... no blood, no infection. She said it's the best specimen she's ever seen from me. (should I be proud?)

She remembered the pleurisy in December... and I described other various abdominal pains I've had. She poked and prodded and moved me in a lot of positions and she thinks that there's a disk problem in my mid-back that is causing pain on the left side of my body... so she drew up orders for a spine xray tomorrow while I'm at the imaging center... and that way... if the urologist decides that the stones are not bad enough to be causing the level of pain that I'm having, we'll already have the information we need to go to the next area of concern.

I told her how frustrated I was with the phone nurse ... she agreed that her response to me was inappropriate. I *like* everyone at that doctors office but I really feel like I've wasted three weeks of my life on something that should have been more carefully diagnosed, especially if we determine that stones are not the primary cause of the pain.

I got a shot of toradol, which is a strong anti-inflammatory. It would help in any situation (and this is something I should have gotten three weeks ago). I got a prescription for a muscle relaxer, which, again, would have helped whether it was a kidney stone issue or a muscular skeletal issue... they were concerned that my blood pressure was up (thank you, pain)... and at the moment... I'm again... cheech and chong comfortable. There is still pain but it's bearable. If the xrays show back trouble, she's already written orders for me to start physical therapy on that.

I have my CT scan and xrays in the morning at 8am in Gainesville so I'll be on the road headed south waaaay early. There won't be a blog entry in the morning... won't be time... but I'll come back later in the day if I can and update you... although I doubt I'll have any answers tomorrow.