MS or something else?

Every time Lynn goes through a spell of feeling bad, I wonder, “Is this MS or something else?”  MS is so sneaky.  It affects so many components of the body and mimics so many other things that it’s not always easy to tell.

Like now.  Something is wrong with Lynn. He associates it with when he got his flu shot at the end of October and it’s true that taking a vaccine often does trigger a reaction in MS patients.  As their body attempts to make antibodies against whatever is being introduced, the autoimmune response is often triggered and the body feels the effects of the war.  But it usually doesn’t last this long…

If you recall,  a few blogs back I mentioned his hemoglobin report came back low.  I have been hoping that the result was a mistake. I’m still hoping that but over the last week, he’s getting more and more fatigued.  By 3-4 p.m. he’s exhausted and feeling really rotten.  The only thing that has been giving him any relief is a hot shower so he’s had a hot shower every night this week. I talked to his doctor today about re-ordering the lab work and maybe adding a few other tests.  She wants him to come in first so she can assess him herself.

I understand her perspective but we still don’t have a title or tags for our van so I can’t take him to the doctor yet.  Yes, I could put him in my car but he’s so difficult to get in and out, I don’t want to do that if I can wait.  So, he has an appointment for next Friday.  I’m hoping the title we’re waiting to get from the former owner’s bank will come in this week and maybe I can get the appointment moved up.  I know Lynn is really feeling bad and that he is also concerned about what’s going on because he’s anxious to go to the doctor too and he NEVER wants to voluntarily go to the doctor.

So we wait to find out what’s next.  The doctor mentioned may be sending him to a hematologist (blood doctor) for an assessment.  Might as well, we haven’t seen one of those yet.  He has a pulmonologist, a neurologist, a cardiologist, an endocrinologist, a urologist, a physiologist, and a dermatologist.  Pretty soon he will have a specialist for every body part.  What his primary care doctor (not an -ologist but an internist) thinks is that something is affecting the production of red blood cells in his bone marrow.  That’s rather worrisome for me because having a medical background myself, I think first of cancer.  Sure hope there’s no chemotherapy on the horizon.  His PCP thinks maybe it’s one of his medications causing a problem so if she repeats the lab work and there is still no improvement in the hemoglobin, I guess we try that next.  Let’s hope it will be a simple fix.

So what do we hope for?  If it’s MS pain and discomfort, chances are there is no treatment.  If it’s anemia due to bone marrow being impacted by something, then maybe there is a treatment.  Hopefully, he just needs iron shots or something.  So if you’re the praying kind, pray we get that title in tomorrow so I can get tags on the van and be able to take him to the doctor to find out what’s going on.  Until we can get there, we are in a holding pattern and that’s pretty stressful.  Then pray the new lab work will reveal that nothing is wrong and that maybe there is something he can take to feel better.

Thanks.  We appreciate the prayers and support.