Some actual, honest to god, good news :-)
Apr. 14th, 2011 06:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayWell, it was all good news from Awesome GI Guy. Hooray! Although it's too early to see signs of the inflammation healing, it's definitely no worse and the lack of bleeding or other symptoms is very encouraging. Hopefully we'll be able to see the inflammation going down the next time I see him, which would be awesome. In other words, Awesome GI Guy thinks I'm a great Humira patient :-)
My haemoglobin is still low, but seems to be stabilising which is also encouraging. My iron levels are low so he wants me to try taking the iron tables every two or three tablets and see how it goes. If that still causes issues (it's feast or famine with you, was his comment *g*) then we'll look at shots or infusions.
I have an order to get blood work in a couple of weeks so that we can check my HGB and iron levels. He's hoping that we'll see the HGB start to rise - that will be another confirmation that I'm responding to the Humira. Although the HGB is stable, it's still low and thus I am still very anaemic and that's why I'm incredibly tired all the time. Obviously we'll do some investigation if the tiredness doesn't improve with the HGB, but right now there's no reason to think there's anything else going on.
My body has been through rather a lot over the last few weeks :-)
Awesome GI Guy was also more than happy to fill out any paperwork my HR department needs, commenting that he'd much rather have patients get all their paperwork in order early rather than trying to retroactively defend a bad record later. He also commented that getting my accommodations (working from home when necessary) in place formally now will make it much harder for work to refuse similar ones later if something else (like breaking a leg!) comes up. For me, it's also about staff turn-over in HR and my team structure: the people that I've worked this out with may not be there in six months time, but the paperwork will be.
And this is why he is Awesome. He's so good about helping me in any way that he can. So many doctors would create a fuss or take the papers and promise to fill them out later with no intention of doing so. He just sat and wrote things for me right there. Took about a minute and it will be good for him as well as me: if I know that it's all official, then I won't be stressed or trying to push myself into the office when I really shouldn't be there.
After the last few weeks of bad news and things just not going well, it's so good to finally hear positive news.
Now I just have to plan when I'm taking myself out for that burger treat that I promised myself!
My haemoglobin is still low, but seems to be stabilising which is also encouraging. My iron levels are low so he wants me to try taking the iron tables every two or three tablets and see how it goes. If that still causes issues (it's feast or famine with you, was his comment *g*) then we'll look at shots or infusions.
I have an order to get blood work in a couple of weeks so that we can check my HGB and iron levels. He's hoping that we'll see the HGB start to rise - that will be another confirmation that I'm responding to the Humira. Although the HGB is stable, it's still low and thus I am still very anaemic and that's why I'm incredibly tired all the time. Obviously we'll do some investigation if the tiredness doesn't improve with the HGB, but right now there's no reason to think there's anything else going on.
My body has been through rather a lot over the last few weeks :-)
Awesome GI Guy was also more than happy to fill out any paperwork my HR department needs, commenting that he'd much rather have patients get all their paperwork in order early rather than trying to retroactively defend a bad record later. He also commented that getting my accommodations (working from home when necessary) in place formally now will make it much harder for work to refuse similar ones later if something else (like breaking a leg!) comes up. For me, it's also about staff turn-over in HR and my team structure: the people that I've worked this out with may not be there in six months time, but the paperwork will be.
And this is why he is Awesome. He's so good about helping me in any way that he can. So many doctors would create a fuss or take the papers and promise to fill them out later with no intention of doing so. He just sat and wrote things for me right there. Took about a minute and it will be good for him as well as me: if I know that it's all official, then I won't be stressed or trying to push myself into the office when I really shouldn't be there.
After the last few weeks of bad news and things just not going well, it's so good to finally hear positive news.
Now I just have to plan when I'm taking myself out for that burger treat that I promised myself!
