I had my second follow up appointment with the doctor after the ER today, and a lot was covered. I was informed that since an MRI is the logical follow up for the search for a fistule, sae doctor has provided the referral for that (not the hospital). I was also given a number to call in order to try to get in sooner than several months from now for the MRI, whenever there might be a cancellation. But it looks like maybe 3-4 months could be the wait time normally for that. So it's going to be a slow process trying to find out if there's a fistule.
The abscess itself now has no pain left except if I press really hard on one spot but it seems like it won't need more antibiotics and it will continue to resolve on its own.
About the referral from the hospital, my doctor got word of who that specialist is, and sae thinks that since it's a surgeon, it would logically be one which has all kinds of expertise in that part of the body, of some kind. But my doctor doesn't know exactly, but definitely assumes that's the type of specialist it is. So, I guess I'll go see that specialist, but I think if they say that I need a colonoscopy I'll say no until the results from the MRI are in first. But generally, I totally assume that they would not give me any shit just because of what happened at the hospital. I pretty much assume no one's really talked to sae about the colonoscopy fiasco thing, and so sae wouldn't even bring it up.
That surgeon, my doctor said, will be the best person to talk to about the cyst which I think was the source of the abscess. That cyst normally would be surgically removed by that surgeon as part of this process. So I'll just wait for that referral to call which will probably be around a week from now.
Then finally I got a chance to talk to the doctor about my fatigue which started in May after I was sick. And the doctor said that according to the hospital tests, my blood count had gone down to 115 from 140 the last time we checked. So, that would explain why I've been experiencing so much despair and loss of hope over the last while since the hospital. And the bleeding which happened then is obviously from the abscess although this fatigue has been longer term and the doctor wonders if there could be any other issue like bleeding of another kind inside my body.
But anyway, sae's approach is to re-order my bloodwork for vitamins and thyroid again just to see as a normal check about fatigue. And I said to sae "Well we did not too long ago check my thyroid and vitamins" and the doctor said "Oh well that was a few months ago actually so it's best we check again, especially since a post-viral fatigue might not have lasted as long as this so maybe it was both that and something else".
We talked about the infection in my gums too, and the doctor said I should go right away to a dentist (which thankfully I think is probably covered under my plan) to see if it's coming from gum disease potentially. I didn't think it was, because I could tell what caused the infection. But that's just part of the normal search to rule out gum disease first and then speculate further from there. Now, if this would be just an exam like a cleaning and xray, then it's not covered for me until November. But I think it's probably its own kind of examination so it's probably covered. I'll check in about that soon.
Still even now there is just a little bit of pain left in that gum area only if I press carefully on it with some kind of an item. It was a very angry, stubborn infection. And if it started being a problem again I could treat it with alcohol more but the doctor just wonders if I got it all or if maybe there is any infection left in another deeper pocket perhaps at this stage. So if there's no gum disease, we can check that issue. In fact I'm not even sure if the dentist would xray to check if the infection is deeper maybe. So I'll just see with the dentist.
The doctor will call me back once sae gets my lab results for my fatigue and message me if they hear anything else about the MRI.
Add comment
Comments