DOCTOR #3

I had worked in the medical field for a few years and knew that an Infectious Disease Specialist diagnosed people with HIV and Hepatitis and Tuberculosis. Why was she sending me there? Okay, now I'm willing to accept the whole pneumonia thing, go home, take the pills and feel better next week. Wrong!!!! The 'dog with a bone' changed those plans. It was June 27th, 2007. Mario has only been gone for a week and it feels like a month. Dr. Yoon was the IDS. He looked young enough to be my son and seemed to be an arrogant hot dog. Must have been the fever raging because he turned out to be a top notch specialist. He covered every bit of history and symptoms. The word 'thorough' doesn't begin to describe his exam. He really freaked my parents out when he asked them to leave the room. My heart started to pound. I have to admit, I was scared. Turns out, he was just being discreet. He wanted to know if I was straight or gay and monogamous. Whew, that's an easy one. Like I said, no stone unturned. He immediately ordered more lab work and came to the conclusion that I had Pleurisy. I know, who gets that?! What, am I in the 1800's where they had consumption and shit? Turns out, it's inflamation of the lining of the lungs. As we go through my story, you'll see how inflamation is the root of all evil in Sarcoid. He gave me a motrin and within a 1/2 hour, I felt like I could breathe again. He sent me home to wait for test results and I made an appointment with my Optometrist. I was feeling better compared to the hell I was in the week before, but, it was still taking it's toll. I had also decided to start getting copies of my medical records considering I had been misdiagnosed twice in one week. On a side note, My Betty Boop dog started coughing like a honking noise. It was getting warmer so I thought it might be doggie furballs or something like that. My Punky kitty was throwing up but sometimes when they catch geckos, it doesn't settle well. More about those stories later. Five days later, I was back with Dr. Yoon to go over my test results, and there were lots of them. He had ordered an MRI of my brain but they couldn't fit me in until 6/25. Guess I wasn't THAT sick. So, my urine had protein in it. Of course, at the time, that meant nothing to me. The HIV and HEP C were negative and all the other obscure Lyme disease and such were all negative. For those of you who understand inflammatory tests (there's that inflamation word again), my ANA was 320, ESR was 27 and CRP was 5.4. My liver enzymes were elevated 3 times the normal range. My body was just cranking up only I didn't know it yet. He also said something I really didn't want to hear. He thought I might have LUPUS. That kinda rocked my world. I thought what happened years ago was some kind of anomaly. Some kind of divine intervention. I had beaten it. Or, had I? He ordered yet more tests and referred me to the 1 Rheumatologist on the island because his job was done. Damn, I really liked him. I felt another round of Google coming on...