Woof. More health stuff.
I saw a doctor at my GP yesterday, basically as a formality so I could get a referral to the urologist. I've seen the urologist before, but it's been four years, so I figured I'd better get another referral. So I went and saw Dr. Smith, who I've not met before, but who was nice enough. He talked to me about urologists, and how they are all guys who mostly deal with old men with penis and/or prostate issues. I said I was well-aware of this. You have to be a dick to want to examine dicks all day. I said I wanted to see a urologist and get lithotripsy again. He was vastly impressed that I knew about lithotripsy. I basically said "Honey, you don't know the half of it," and then I explained to him about all my other medical issues. I am getting kind of tired of doing this.

He also told me that men are more prone to kidney stones than women (which I knew) and the reason (which I didn't know) which is that men have more muscle, which utilizes a lot of calcium, which gets filtered by the blood and passed on to the kidneys. I don't have a lot of muscle, but it occurred to me that muscle also contains a lot of mitochondria. I did a quick search on pubmed and there does seem to be a relationship between mitochondrial dysfunction and calcium oxalate stone formation. So that may be another piece of the puzzle. I'm already fairly convinced I have mito at this point.

I also spiked a fever of 100 yesterday, and nobody knows why. It seems to be gone today. Also, the thrush infection is gone. I'm very glad, because it was gross.

Eve called me today to give me my blood results. My hemoglobin is okay, but my iron is really really low. I'm taking a multivitamin that has %100 of my iron needs, so I guess it's just not getting absorbed. The other vitamin tests have not come back yet, perhaps they will give me more clues. The other notable thing was that my C-reactive protein (measure of inflammation) was through the roof. I asked Eve if it could be caused by kidney stones, she said not to this extent. The last time I had my CRP checked was a year ago (it was normal), right after I upped my dose of Octreotide, and my intestine was working better. She also talked to Dr. Snape and he wants me to get worked up for celiac and crohn's again. Sigh and bother. I am going to protest and very possibly stamp my foot and refuse. I don't have celiac symptoms, I've been biopsied and bloodworked for it, and I've also been extensively worked over for crohn's. I really think it'd be a waste of time at this point. But Potions Master and Eve are concerned about what the fuck is going on. I predict there will be more tests soon.

Also, if I have to get lithotripsy, I have to get the neurostimulator turned off first, because it could interfere. What a drag.

My Octreotide shipment is late again because of the stupid pre-auth. We go through this every few months. I called the pharmacy today and they said that they got a pre-auth from the doc, but it was for the WRONG DOSAGE ARG. COME ON PEOPLE THIS IS YOUR JOB. They always seem to fuck this up.

I called my GP today to talk about my bloodwork from yesterday and he called back and left a long rambly message on my voicemail about my bloodwork from the ER (which was mostly normal, except for being overhydrated, because, well, duh, kidney stones) and he said "I hope that icebox in your stomach is still working out okay!" Hee hee.

That's all. More for my benefit than for yours, but I swear to you all, my life is so much more interesting than all this stupid medical shit.