Lisa
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ONLY 2 CT'S?????
Well, I have a feeling then that I could light up my entire town just on how much I must be glowing cause I have 5 CTs in my first year of searching!!!!!
I've been through 3 CTs and 1 MRI just in the 6 months after my surgery! I've also had a nuclear study about 6 or 7 Xrays and even a bone density exam! I've got an orthopedist asking for another CT for my back and then I also have to do another CT in a while to look at my vascular system!!! I've done a total of about 10 CTs in the past 4 years!!!
Yet, I still say, I will continue to confront them if this is what I must do for I know where the real threats to my health are coming from and the radiation is not it! It's my aneurysms and these are what I must protect myself against. Each of us must consider where the real threat is coming from, and for some of us, doing one CT a year is not going to push you over the edge, especially a baseline study.
When our doctors submit us to these exams, they must take a look not only as to whether there is any organ damage happening, but they need to consider the fact that our lymph nodes deep within our body as well as our skeletal system may be under attack. Masto can be aggressive and it can do real damage - it's rare, but it does happen and when your doctors are doing your workup they must find out what your baseline is and how your body is being affected and whether or not you are in danger. They have very necessary exams they need to ask for in order to rule out whatever the disease may be doing to you so that they can then take steps to fight the disease if it is indeed in an aggressive form and you are in danger. Once they can determine that your life is not in danger, then they can relax and take a different approach with your treatment. But in the beginning,t his is what must be done - it is correct procedure.
Remember, your doctor is not your enemy. He's on your side trying to find out what is wrong with you in the best manner possible. Our doctors don't know and can't know what is wrong just cause you sat in his chair. He's as blind and dumb as you are as to what the matter is. He can't see what the problem is and he must use the exams as a means to give him vision as to what is going on with you. Based upon these exames, he begins to paint a picture as to what is the matter.
Remember also that what is so shocking to us and takes a while for us patients to wake up to is that we are no longer typical people who have a cold or flu and when we go to the doctor our problem is simple and easy to resolve. A gyno doesn't have any difficulty diagnosing that a woman is pregnant in her 9th month, but he does when she's only 1 or 2 along cause then he's blind and he can only go by her symptoms and his touch. Well, our doctors can't even rely upon their touch, which speaks reams to a physician.
When we go into a doctor with a constellation of symptoms like we patients present to them, there are hordes of diseases which produce like symptoms and it's then a situation of where they must INVESTIGATE us, trying everything they can within their knowledge to find out what is wrong with us!!!
My gyno KNEW that something wasnt right with me a week following my release from the hospital after my hsyterectomy. I had begun complaining of dyspnea and fainting and when I went into his office for my 1st post-op checkup I went into anaphylaxis right there! I about fainted in his arms! He hospitalized me immediately and began his searching - he had 3 definite things he needed to rule out first: infection, anemia and a pulmonary embolism!!! That search landed me in the ICU because they found a subdural hemorrhage, which is common enough for a hysterectomy, but it was the behavior that accompanied it which freaked the doctors out because they no sooner asked me to hold my breath when I I fainted right away and they almost couldn't pull me out of it! They didn't find any pulmonary embolism but I had a 2 day stint in the ICU due to this. My gyno hadn't the slightest idea of what was wrong and he ended up hospitalizing me twice more before I began to gain headway. It was anaphylaxis all three times but it took as a full year to find out this much!! In that time period my gyno sent me to all of his colleagues he could and they kept tripping up on the hysterectomy thinking it had caused psychossomatic symptoms! Yet, when my gyno got fed up with the stupidity of his colleagues, he took my case back in hand cause I was in his office when I went into a mini crisis and he saw me turn such a deep, strong red along with such a strong, gripping dyspnea that I about passed out and it lasted a full 5 or so minutes and he sat there observing me with such a serious look on his face - gathering clues! He was CONVINCED something was dreadfully wrong and he used those clues and began RESEARCHING and it was a mere GYNO who was who put the clues together and raised the flag for either the carcinoid syndrome or masto and from that point on, we took it from there and began YEARS of medical testing and investigating where I have challenged every single doctor who has had me in his office!!
My friends, what we go through is an INVESTIGATION. It's very hard work for our doctors for they are TOTALLY BLIND especially if they've never even heard of the disease before! Our cases are probably the most challenging cases our doctors will ever have in their ENTIRE careers!! It is incredibly HARD WORK for them!
So, I realize that we all are freaked out of our minds over these situations we are living in, but believe me, our doctors are really doing their very best to try to find the answers for us and they are ON OUR SIDES!!
So, in considering all of this, remember, you've got to coorperate with your doctors, within reason, for they are trying to find the answers. Those of us who have been through an extensive workup are here trying to help you not only to protect yourselves, but to also help you know if your doctors do indeed understand what they are doing, for so many do not and they get understandably lost. This way, with some of our help, we can help you and your families more secure that yes, your doctors are indeed helping you.
Well, I've talked too much once again! Sorry Gang!!
Lisa
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