Appointment Review

Summary, in case the medical details bore you:

• Good appointment with Dr. Conley by phone yesterday
• Valtrex update - will remain on it until Christmas
• I'm not gluten intolerant (yet) but I have high sensitivities to gluten and so I'm officially GF (gluten free)
• I have some bloodwork coming up this Thursday
• I'm going to write a novel. This November. Yay for NaNoWriMo!!!

Yesterday I had another phone consultation with Dr. Conley. I'm getting rather used to phone doctor's appointments, I think. I set up the desk with my binders of test results, other paper information, all my current supplements (so I can update him on any changes), and my computer as my own personal researching center. Today's appointment I had a lot of good news for him since my October 2nd appointment. I told him about Progressive Medical Center and Dr. Agolli and the vitamin IVs and how much better I am feeling now. After I'd told him everything he said, "Well, whatever works, that's what we'll do!" If it turns out that I need more IVs, I can go back to Atlanta for more treatment. Dr. Conley thinks it is likely that the IV solution was saline (salt) based, which increased my blood pressure and helped take care of some of the other orthostatic symptoms, and the vitamin B increased my energy levels.

Although I've been feeling better, Dr. Conley thinks I need to be on Valtrex at least until Christmas. Possibly after the current round is finished, I can switch from Valtrex/Valacyclovir over to Acyclovir, which is a little bit older of an antiviral drug and a little less expensive. I still want to do some research on Phoenix Rising about the difference between the two, so I might blog about that later.

The saliva test revealed some interesting things. First, my adrenals are actually not in too bad of a condition. Second, my saliva shows high gluten antibodies (indicating a possibly food allergy or intolerance) despite the fact that my blood does not display any adverse reaction to gluten. In Dr. Conley's experience, saliva is an 'early indicator' of gluten intolerance. There has been no permanent gut damage, but if I were to continue eating gluten, it is possible it could cause some real problems down the road. So, looks like I'm gluten free for good. I'm thinking about blogging about some gluten free brands and food options soon. Let me know if there is anyone out there interested in hearing anything specific on that!

We also talked about a blood test useful in diagnosing how well my natural killer cells are functioning. (I don't remember what those are or what they do... sorry.) When I had my first round of bloodwork done the lab ran the wrong test. So, I called the supervisor and it took about two weeks to make sure the right test would be done. It was drawn again last week, but something happened that contaminated the specimen, so the lab called me to come in yet again for this test on Thursday. I just hope this is the last time for sure!! If those come back low, there is a very effective way of raising natural killer cell function by as much as 200%, and it is natural and has no side effects. Whoop-de-doo! Already ordered some of that, because it sounds like even if they come back just fine, it wouldn't do any harm to take them anyway, and it could help my struggling immune system.

I am looking forward to my time of recovery. It is almost November, and that means that NaNoWriMo is almost here!!! I participated in National Novel Writers Month in 2010 when I was recovering from mono. I'm looking forward to now participating in it as a recovering CFS/ME patient. If you are friends with me on Facebook, I will be posting photos daily with a word count update. If not, I will sometimes probably post updates here. Just don't count on as much blogging. I'm going to be writing 1667 words a day at least, so I don't know if I'll even want to blog!

Well, I think that's about it. Have a fantastic day, y'all! :)