So Far So Good- New Endo

Yesterday was my first appointment here with the new endocrinologist. We will call him Dr. G since I'd rather not share info on where I am (mother is still stalking you know...get a life woman!) and he seems to actually know something about MEN2a and the other MEN syndromes as well. That's a nice thing considering most of them say they know something and then don't. I'm not saying that against Dr. L who was my endo before but because of all the calls I've made since then looking for someone new. After a few silent breaks on the phone when you ask you tend to get frustrated.

Anyway- he was very nice, asked my history and lots of questions, wrote down things, and thinks Dr. BC is basically an idiot too. He can't understand why they left a parathyroid in my neck considering that sets me up for future surgeries right there but the whole adenoma in the arm thing totally blew him AND the surgeon he talked to away. I told him thank you because now my husband and I don't have to feel stupid or like we just don't get it. Although, Dr L probably felt the same as well. Neither of them have CALLED him an idiot but I figure that's the condensed way of saying it. ;)

Dr. G ordered a bunch of new tests including some I just had done last month. I guess they want their labs to do it and recheck the intact PTH since it's so high. So new calcitonin was ordered, 24 hour urine for pheos, intact PTH, I'm to get a parathyroid scan to see if it's the thing in my arm or the parathyroid in my neck that is causing the high PTH levels, and a CT scan of my abdomen so we can get another look at the tumor in my small bowel. He'll get all the test results back and then I'll have another appointment to go over everything. Hopefully by Christmas I'll at least have this thing out of my arm and then we can move on to other things.

I also learned something new. A way to tell if you are on too much Cortef is that you will develop red stretchmarks on your sides. I thankfully don't have any but I thought it was a neat new thing to learn. Dr. G also said that the dosage I'm on for Cortef actually is a small dose (10mg) so I shouldn't worry too much. He agreed with Dr L that my adrenal crisis problems pretty much show that the little piece of the left adrenal cortex they left isn't working. He also said the same thing as Dr. L on the weight gain too - my chances of losing much weight are pretty slim because of all this crap. :(

So it will be a few weeks before all the results are back and then we will go from there. Hopefully by the end of three months everything will be done and I can try to get on with life for awhile.

The oldest two kids and myself have an appointment with a PCP on Friday. It's just a new patient visit so we can get set up with someone. I am also going to see what they say about getting help for my neck pain here. I'm hoping that acupuncturists are covered on our new insurance because I've tried just about everything else. It IS nice to finally be someplace that has a variety of doctors so we actually get a choice. Dr L did a great job but Moffitt in Tampa.... them I could have done without!