OFF TOPIC, but this is RCTN and some one will know

that was a branch off of my "get blood off a mattress" - and I did! thanks all C

Did it involve a lot of licking ?? You have to tell us lol

Ah, that would contribute to his having issues now. The last 15 years, especially the last 5, doctors are really working to not use antibiotics unless truly needed. As people in certain age groups (like children of the

Poor guy - cellulitis isn't pleasant. Hope he's doing better now. I've had it 3 times - each time from an insect bite - including after a bee sting, where we used the epi-pen, and then my thigh looked like a tree in the front. Ugh. And then, the doctor at the ER (sent from work) turned out to be an ice dancer who looked at DH & I and said "hey, I know you - aren't you hockey players? I see you at the adult skate." Funny, eh.

Ellice - who gets to see a new doctor today, adding a rheumatologist to the mix 'cause evidently the auto-immune thing is causing psoriatic arthritis - mostly evident in my left hand, a bit in the right

nope - three four rounds with the hydrogen peroxide did the trick

My, you *have* had your share of problems this past year, haven't you? Hugs to you and I hope they get things figured out sooner rather than later!

On 8/2/11 12:02 PM, in article snipped-for-privacy@g5g2000prn.googlegroups.com, "Joan E." wrote:

Thanks, Joan. It's not so bad....just dealing. The rheumatologist was really nice, a little surprised that I chose her across town as opposed to someone closer. Of course, there are only 2 out here in this section of VA, and one of my docs (my fav) felt not so good about the 1 which the other doc referred me to. If that makes any sense. So, I went to the woman that my primary care doc sent preferred, she's got fabulous recommendations, and it's a big rheumatism & arthritis group with a few offices, lots of resoursces. She was pretty fun - we had a thrilling time looking at related meds/syndromes & turns out she's quite good friends with my gastroenterologist, and pretty friendly with my primary care - so that makes this easier as they all have to share info, etc. Basically she told me that I have some osteo-arthritis starting in some fingers, definitely where I have the healed fractures, and she did some bloodwork to see what's up with the auto-immune arthritis development. The most interesting thing is that I've been doing injections every 3 days for about 18 mnths for the auto-immune stuff - recently cut to 1/week (not so good) - and she thought it may be because of insurance. Then, she told me that she'd had another patient on the same drug who had developed lupus -so tested for that. I'll hear from her soon. But, she's going to put me on a drug which requires infusions - I think every few weeks - however, my hematologist who is local will be able to administer the infusions in his center where they do my other therapy. Pretty nice - they're just figuring out the how to do the Rx as an out-patient so I don't have to drive 40 mi to spend 4 hours at the doc and then drive back in DC traffic.

Yesterday - went to see the neuro-ophthmalogist at Wilmer (Johns Hopkins). Awesome - and he had a charming med student (resident?) from Glasgow there. DH went with me (my eyes are still a bit owlish). Best part from DH's perspective - the rather Monty Python meets Three Stooges when the doc told me he was going to touch my eyeball surface with a tissue and let him know if I felt it. Which was preceded & followed by the moving pen, finger, etc. Much to our surprise he twisted up the tissue into a long pointy thing and stabbed my eye - DH said I totally jumped - and then the doc said "Did you feel that?" DH & the med student burst out laughing. There was a fair amount of poking on my face - checking to see if nerves are working on both sides, etc. Then they looked at my optic nerves by 2 methods -evidently in Scotland they use a different method than here. And finally - photos done in the special photo lab - the photographer looked at me -and said, oh, you're going to hate me -you have those really light eyes. And I was very, very dilated. The lights for the retinal photos are really intense, short, bright flashes. Way cool to see the photos - not so cool the remaining headache. But no doubt I looked so cool wearing dark sunglasses as we drove home, even after dinner. So, referral from him to a specialty neurologist in the department at Hopkins -as the neuro-opthmalogist said they do follow some patients as regular patients, rather than just the specialty come for services go back home. Anyhow, so, as we all discussed it's only about an hour to get there from here, and there are appropriate specialists so now I wait to see the neuro guy - which will be in late Sept. And life goes on. It's all fine. He was impressed that my distance vision is still so good, and reading still only needing minimal correction. I will say the system for dealing with the admin at Johns Hopkins was fabulous, and people were so nice all along the way. Which is in some respects a very nice thing.

Anyhow - thanks for the hugs - Ellice

Sorry - the reply was meant for Joan - but I hit the wrong reply to button.

Ellice