Lap Band And Auto Immune Disorders .. Maybe I am NOT Crazy after all !!

Some of you may remember a while ago I was having ( and still am ) some issues with my feet, muscle aches, and some others issues. The doctors never really could tell me what they thought it was, although one Rhemtologist (sp) said my blood work was possible for Chrohns disease.
Well, since I have been researching getting my lap band removed and the issues that people have been having along with that I came across this from LapBand Central :

There have been no reports of autoimmune disease with the use of the LAP-BAND^® System. Autoimmune diseases and connective tissue disorders, though, have been reported after long-term implantation of other silicone devices. These problems can include systemic lupus erythematosus and scleroderma. At this time, there is no conclusive clinical evidence that supports a relationship between connective-tissue disorders and silicone implants. Long-term studies to further evaluate this possibility are still being done. You should know, though, that if autoimmune symptoms develop after the band is in place, you may need treatment. The band may also need to be removed. Talk with your surgeon about this possibility. Also, if you have symptoms of autoimmune disease now, the LAP-BAND^® System may not be right for you.

Hummmm WHAT THE HELL ?? I have been talking to lots of other people who are in the same boat as me and looking around on message boards, LOTS and I mean LOTS Of other people have developed auto immune symptoms since getting their bands !

I am doing everything I can to try to get my band out , this is just one more reason to try and get the damn thing out now !

My other health issue posts can be found under Health or Auto Immune tabs.

Thanks so much .

Doctor Update

What happens when You cant get insurance and have to go to the doctor ? You sit in an office ( Not a free clinic mind you ) for 4 HOURS while you forget your in the US because everyone around you is NOT Speaking English ! Then after 3 Hours you are called back . Finally a pretty good doc that I actually like comes in feels like she is listening to you , tells you " I'll be right back Im going to ask a question " where you SIT For ANOTHER 45 minutes ! only to have a nurse walk back and in tell you " Come back in an HOUR to have blood drawn ! Go back in an hours sit for ANOTHER HOUR and have blood drawn ! REALLY FUN HUH ???

On a positive note I did like the doc ( besides her leaving me sitting there forever ! ) She thinks 2 things may be going on 1. I could still have Crohns disease. Because oh yeah the $1200 a spent a while back to get the colonoscopy to check for CD ... well yeah it was kind of pointless ! Because Colonoscopies do not check for CD , or its not the best way to check ! SO its still an option . Yet since I am and was "fat" Not likely but possible.

2. I may have SEVERE Food allergies that are causing my stomach issues and joint issues . And just causing me to feel like shit all the time .
SO she did draw blood to test for that, I should find out tomorrow about those.

3. I did find out my very cold hands and feet are most likely a condition ( cant remember the name ) not anything i can do about it though !

So I am getting somewhere. Maybe !

Another Brick Wall

SO after no return call for 2 weeks I call my docs office after getting the biopsy results in the mail that say " biopsy results are clear " follow up in 10 YEARS ! are you EFFING Kidding me !!! No " if your having problems come back " NOTHING ! I called the nurse answered and I RIPPED HER A NEW ONE ! I told her " REALLY... You send someone a result that says Come back in 10 YEARS " with nothing else , no please follow up , are you still in pain NOTHING ! She told me " WELL , if i were you i would do a follow up visit if im still in pain " I told her " IM NOT U I EXPECTED A LITTLE GUIDANCE FROM MY DOCTOR , Tell him TO CALL ME BY TODAY OR I WONT COME BACK , i spent $1400 out of pocket for NOTHING "
I am trying to figure out now what to do , here is my thought process at this point:

A. Go back to this doc .After explaining what a shithead i think he is to him
B. Go back to the primary care doc that sent me to him ( at the clinic i liked her well enough )
C. Find another GI doc
D. Go ba...ck to the rhemtologist I saw originally that got all this rolling ?
E. Wait until the new year when we hopefully get insurance ?
I Have no idea what to do ? either way I feel like im starting over and back to square one !

So as I type this the GI doc's office calls me back and says she's called the doc and asked him to call me so maybe we can avoid a office visit ( not gonna happen ) but I WILL let him know that I do not appreciate being left out on the wind like this w/ no direction or guidance as to what to do .

Pullilng my hair out !

Well for the past few months I have not felt well.
Funny thing I had my lap band surgery 4 yrs ago to have a better quality of life.
I had it when I did so I would NOT have a stroke, have high BP , have this or that, I did it when I did before I had any serious health issues. Now , I almost feel worse than I did before my surgery . I will say this, I am thankful I am NOT 250 pounds dealing with what I am dealing with now .


You might remember the issues w/ my feet and all that. Well my husband finally told me to go see a GI doc and figure out what was going on , to get an official diagnoses so i could go from there. I knew he would want to do a colonoscopy and I knew we did not have the money for it since we still do not have insurance. I went to the doc he told me it does look like I could have crohns disease ( which I suspected and the other doc did as well ) and he wanted to do the colonoscopy . Well its $1200 ! My husband told me to just do it. So , I had that done last Friday . Well guess what ? It showed NOTHING ! I had one polyp removed and that was it , no active Crohns. A friend who has Crohns said that just means its not in my colon .
But I am back to square one ! It means more tests more doctors that I dont have the money for .
When I have my flare ups I am in bed for days sometimes a week on end, the fatigue is indescribable and it takes me weeks to recover. I cant eat much and its just exhausting , and it happens over and over again ! So I guess after the pathology result come back I'll go back to the GI and see what he says from there !

Stiches

My stitches come out tomorrow. Thank god. This wrap on my toe is becoming more of a pain in my ass than anything . I got " in trouble" at work for wearing flip flops . SORRY ass but I cant wear a regular shoe because I have this mongoloid toe , SEE !

I am a merchandiser for a big name company that works inside another BIG store . One of the managers for the BIG store got after me. Well he's not my boss. I dont technically work for him or for his store . I wanted to shove my big mongoloid toe up his tight a$$ !

Sorry I am a little irritated with my toe . At this point it is more of a nuisance than anything. So hopefully tomorrow I wont have too many issues after they come out.
I suspect the toe might be a little tender.

Lab Results for my Feet

The labs came back for the bumps on my feet.
They are nothing basically . Just fiborious cysts. He said unless they get bigger and bother me there is no reason to do anything about them .
So that's good . One piece of the puzzle out of the way !

Humpty Bumps Update

I went to the podiatrist today for a check up on my foot after the biopsy on Friday .
Not much to report other than he wanted me to stay off my foot for another day or so .
I thought i was going to get the stiches out and throw away the ugly boot I have to wear but NOOO way Jose. 2 more weeks of the stitches and the boot ! I need to figure out something else to wear , that damn boot hurts more than anything else I think.
The pathology results were not in yet either. The doc did say he thought they were just fibroid cysts . Which if that is the case they will need to be removed from all of my toes. FUN OF FUN. So I go back next week for another check .

I have to make a gastro appt tomorrow as well.
Im off work all this week. So here i sit in bed w/ my foot up ..

On a nother note, I would like to ask for prayers, good thoughts, crossed fingers, what ever it may be you do ... Our very good friends daughter is battling a rare form of cancer, she was diagnosed stage 4. The cancer was gone for a short time and is now back in her spine and in her spinal fluid. The doctors reports have said they do not expect her to make it through the week. She is only 11 years old. Please keep her in your thoughts.

Her name is Cheyenne. http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1015461367#!/group.php?gid=112214285901&ref=ts
Is her Facebook page.
Thanks
Mindy

I may be gettting closer :

I had some more labs emailed to me today . Although I like the fact that the labs are emailed they do not come w/ much of an explanation . Luckily I have several friends who are nurses who can help me understand. The doc is going to call me tomorrow to help explain things to me . But this is what the lab explanation said " These antibodies can be seen in patients with bowel disorders like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. She should share this information with your GI doctor. This gives us more evidence and information that the bowels are important part of her condition at this point. "
and "Saccharomyces cerevisiae IgG antibodies are found in
60-70 percent of Crohn disease (CD) patients and
10-15 percent of ulcerative colitis (UC) patients.
Saccharomyces cerevisiae IgA antibodies are found in
about 35 percent of CD patients but less than 1 percent
in UC patients. Detection of both Saccharomyces IgG
and IgA antibodies in the same serum specimen is
highly specific for CD." (I have both antibodies )

So in other words he's pointing towards the fact that I probably have Chrons disease as well as the arthritis that goes w/ it . I believe its called IBD arthritis .
He still wants me to go in on Friday for the biopsy of my foot.

So it seems we may be getting closer !

Some Lab Work is in :

And its normal ! My CBC, Metabolic Rate and C reactive are all normal .
So I am not sure what to think at this point. I am happy nothing has come back seriously wrong , but frustrated they cant find an answer yet.
Friends and family are calling and saying " Hey look up this " it sounds like that is what you have. The problem my issue is probably an auto immune issue and all auto immune issues have nearly identical symptoms ! So I have not really been looking into anything. Its just too overwhelming . There are a few things that I did look into before ( I decided to stop LOL) that may have some substance to them.
So I will bring them up to the doc when i go back . I go in Friday for the biopsy of my foot.
So we'll see .

Rheumtologist Update

I went to the specialist today , Rheumatologist (I cant never spell that right )
I liked him a lot . Hes' very nice, listened well, spent all the time i needed w/ him, He was voted one of Texas Monthly's "Super Doctors" 4 yrs in a row.
He did not make any "Guess' about what might be going on . He said he's all about patient education but at this point im a puzzle we need to put together.
He wants me to go to the podiatrist and get the things on my feet biopsied. ( I do that next Friday ) He did say that since i have had gastro problems since 2002 that might play something into this ( like Crohns disease or something ? ) that's about the only "condition" he threw around.
He ordered some more blood work , I did not get a list but he is going to email them to me as they come in .
I do know one was a thyroid test, CBC , protein test , metabolic ( I was looking on the lab sheet ) that's all i remember they took 7 vials of blood !
He gave me a stronger NSAID RX ( I had to check w/ my lap band doc to take it and he said ok )
He did say I can tell you this has NOTHING to do w/ your band , I knew that though .
So although i did not get much of an answer i feel like we are at least moving towards one.

Doctor Update

If you call it that ! I went to see my primary care doctor today and he was not much help about what is going on with me . He drew some blood and is probably going to end up sending me to a rhematolgist . He told me he does not think I have arthritis, however after a comment he made I have to say I think he does not know what the hell he's talking about. He told me something along the lines of " arthritis affects the toes and fingers,and other joints not the knees and feet " WHAT THE HELL ? Arthritis affects your JOINTS what the hell do you think a KNEE is ? Even I Know that.
He also threw around things like " Soft tissue diseases like Sclaroderma" which if you know what that is , lets put it this way i would rather have RA than that shit !
So anyway , my blood work should be back tomorrow and I am beyond frustrated at this point between 3 doctors no one know's what the hell is wrong w/ me !

I'm on Fire !!

The Weirdest thing happened to me last night . I was taking a bath . Drew the water got in and when my hands hit the water they felt like they were ON FIRE !!! I cant even begin to tell you how badly this hurt. The tops of my hand not only felt like they were burning but they felt like they had pins and needles on them !
I have no idea if this is all related to what is going on w/ my feet , it would almost have to be . Nothing like this has ever happened to me before.
But how does someone go from being "Normal" to seemingly falling in apart in a matter of weeks ? At least that is how I feel . My doctors apt is tomorrow afternoon . So we'll see.

Bare with me

While i tweak my blog. I am trying to up date some thing and make use of the new "page" feature !

Call from the Doctor

I got a call from my podiatrist this morning. After going to the hospital and looking at my MRI films himself he said that he believes this is some form of Auto Immune disorder most likely RA
( Rheumatoid Arthritis ) He is not 100% sure obviously . He said he has never seen anything really like this , the growths on my feet present themselves they way they have on my feet. All in the exact same spot , even with RA . I go to my primary care doc on Monday to have him either run blood tests ( I hope he does it so I dont have to pay the $50 copay for a specialist ) or he will send me to a Rhematologist for a work up with them. So more waiting. Thank you for your kind comments as well !

Medical Issues Stress

I have been away for a while and I wanted to say hello and really get this off my chest.
Im quite stressed, worried etc. Let me explain . About a month or so ago I noticed a "bump" on the big toe of my left foot. I did not think much about it , i thought it was a corn or a bunion .
It slowly got a little bigger. A few weeks later I noticed a bump on the next toe over but it was under neath my toe ( from the bend of your toe to where your "foot " starts) If that make sense.
So by now im thinking I need to go get this looked at. Im still thinking its from walking around barefoot or wearing flip flops a lot. So I go to the doc and by now its been a total of 2 or 3 weeks and these bumps are now on ALL of my toes on my left foot. My docs answer " WOW I dont know what that is " ! Nice thanks here is your money ! (im kidding of course )
So he sends me to a podiatrist . The podiatrist says he's not 100% sure what they are either. They look like they could be ganglion cysts but those usually are on the top of your feet and not all in the exact same spot on your feet. By now ( its been a week since i have seen my regular doc ) These things , bumps what ever they are , are now on my right foot , the big toe .
So he tells me these are probably either ganglion cysts or some other kind of soft tissue cyst. He sends me to go get an MRI . Ok fine . At this point im thinking I will get these cut out and be on my way . I go today for my MRI results. Well GUESS WHAT , they still dont know what the hell they are . The MRI Shows an "inflammation " but he says its not an inflammation because these things are hard. My toes are starting to become deformed and i have to walk funny because of it. So he asks me " do you have anything else going on , maybe we are missing something "
I tell him these things :
Im tired all the time ( I associated that w/ the fact that there is something odd on my feet )
My feet ache all the time ( same as above )
My feet and hands go numb ( But I recently upped my dosage of topamax which can do that , but that should have gone away by now )
My right hand is numb, I cant grasp things and it hurts all the time ( I wrote that off as maybe carpal tunnel )
So he tells me given these things all together we might be dealing w/ something else. A friend who is a nurse also tells me this could be an Auto Immune disorder or something . Arthritis or something along those lines.
So at this point I still do not know what the hell is wrong w/ me . The doc was suppose to call me back today to let me know where we go . But he did not so I will call him first thing.
I really needed to just vent, get this out.