Do you think that you should be on the TV show "House" and think, "hey, I need that doctor!" Well, this is the blog for you. Topics and links such as Fibromyalgia, PCOS, CFS, Autism, and various cancer's.
Meet The Contributors
Mandy ~ I am a stay at home mom who has been on a medical roller coaster ride going from doctor to doctor trying to figure out what is wrong with me. All of the doctors agreed that there is something medically wrong with me, they just don't know what... Basically, just about every time that I go to the doctor, I wind up with a new diagnosis. It is very frustrating. I hope that some of these links will maybe help you or lead you in the right direction.
Ferd ~ I have had the honor and pleasure of practicing Internal Medicine for over 25 years. I am now enjoying sharing my thoughts and experience in the blogosphere in a number of ways. I am grateful to Mandy for including me on her excellent blog, Texas Medical Freak!
I have been away since Christmas, things have been a bit crazy but that is for another post. I have been spending a lot of time at the above website MDJunction. As my regular readers know, I have plenty of diseases and disorders. I have found some really great groups that I belong to and MDJunction has way to many to mention here. So, if you are in search of an online support group with kind, friendly and knowledgeable people I encourage you to check out MDJunction.
Parathyroid Gland - Since problems with the Parathyroid are fairly rare, this group covers all Parathyroid problems. I am a group leader in this group.
I have posted before that every time that I go to the doctor, I get a new diagnosis. Well, earlier this week I went to the doctor to see about my fibroid issue. I was hoping that I would qualify for a fairly new procedure for fibroids called “Doppler Guided Uterine Artery Occlusion” I included an article about it from the Oxford Journals. Anyway, the doctor told me “I have good news and bad news,” that is never good. The good news was that my fibroids had not grown any in the past two years. The bad news was that I need to have a hysterectomy and re-constructive surgery. He said besides the fibroids and the cysts, I have Uterine Prolapse. And to think, I was worried about my boobs or my bum falling later in life. Years ago, I worked with a woman that had this and had a hysterectomy. But, she is the only person that I have ever known with it. It seems like that she was in her late 30’s? I am really starting to hate going to the doctor.
The “hysterectomy” itself doesn’t bother me as much as the surgery does. I don’t do pain well and there are not many pain killers that I can take either. When I had my thyroid out, it took the surgeon and the anistegeoligist to come up with something for me to take. It worked “ok” after the swelling went down before that the pain was unbearable. The swelling was due to my bruising problem, I bruise at the drop of the hat. I always have bruises and never know where they come from. The other thing that scares me is the numbness that goes along with surgery. When I had my thyroidectomy, it took just about a year before the feeling came back in my neck. Oh, and I can’t forget my fear of something else not working after surgery. I don’t do well with percentages, when I had my biopsy for my thyroid they told me “don’t worry, only 5% of these ever come back anything.” It came back follicular thyroid cancer. Then the doctor told me only 1-3% of people that have a thyroidectomy have their parathyroid quit working. See, I am not very good with percentages.
The past few days I have been looking for information on hysterectomies and now I am more confused than I was when I started. I have found a few good patient friendly pages. One is a personal blog called “One Girl, No Uterus” and Hyster Sisters, which is an online group. Let me tell you, it was much easier finding a surgeon for my thyroid. With hysterectomies there are so many options, it is starting to make my head spin. Laparoscopic (LSH), TLH, Laparoscopic-assisted (LAVH) and Total Abdominal (traditional). And those don’t even cover the “re-construction” part.
If anyone has any good links or information please post them here or if you would rather Email Me. I have a second opinion lined up and I hope that I will be able to put this off until this summer. When school is out and I will not have to drive anywhere.
This morning while looking for news articles on CFS and FM, I ran across an article on the use of magnesium for muscle spasms. I have been taking magnesium since I had my thyroid removed due to cancer. The magnesium has nothing to do with the thyroid or lack of but, when my thyroid was removed my parathyroid completely quit working. This only happens in 1 – 3% of thyroidectomy patients. I am not very good with percentages, when I went in for my thyroid biopsy; the doctor doing the biopsy told me “don’t worry, less than 5% of these ever come back anything.” Turns out I had follicular thyroid cancer.
Back to the article...it talks about magnesium being a natural muscle relaxer, that it can increase energy. I have been out of my magnesium for about a week and my muscle spasms have been raging! Not to mention my fibro pain and most of the time it is not that bad. Not that I don’t hurt, mine is more being sensitive to the touch rather than overall widespread pain. I am more CFS than FM, so I can not attest to magnesium and energy…I have none.
magnesium
Another good thing about magnesium is, depending on the form, is a great laxative (and is not cramping like some over the counter laxatives)! If you have chronic constipation the “magnesium citrate” is the laxative form. My favorite citrate brand, which I learned about from my doctor, is the “Rexall” brand. I have not been able to find this one in months; I used to be able to find it at Walmart in the vitamin section. I am now taking the “NOW” brand, it has the; oxide, citrate and asparate forms in it. The article says that magnesium glycinate and magnesium aspartate is the best forms for fibromyalgia. Magnesium, calcium and D work together, without one the other does not work as well.
Now about the parathyroid, your parathyroid regulates calcium in the body. Since mine no longer works, I have to take calcium, magnesium, prescription vitamin D (which is normally formed in the liver) and Calcitriol (which is normally formed in the kidneys). For me not having a working parathyroid working is much worse than not having a thyroid. The lack of my parathyroid was noticeable immediately after my thyroidectomy surgery. The day after surgery, I woke up to my hands seizing up, numb hands and feet, my lip and face twitching along with other muscles twitching. Then once I was able to eat, I started noticing that my throat would close up (just not want to work) while eating along with terrible hiccups! Until I started on all of the above listed medications, things were really terrible. Some of this still happens every once and a while but, nothing like it was.
If you want to learn more about vitamins, two of my favorite books are; Vitamin Bible and Herb Bible, by Dr. Earl Mindell. I have a few others that I will post later.
If you are not sure what a word is anywhere on my blog, "double click" on a word and The Free Dictionary page will pop up and give you the meaning of the word.
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