Apparently, I am in perfect health, a veritable Greek god, perfect in every way. Except…I had to point out to my doctor that I have these terrible flare-ups of joint problems. Just the week before my physical, I had been painfully crippled by inflammation of my Achilles tendon — suddenly, with no warning or precipitating injury, my ankle was swelling up in all kinds of strange lumps and bulges, and I was scarcely able to walk.
This hits me fairly often, I can count on being incapacitated at least once a semester with this nonsense (note that, as a professor, “incapacitated” means still having to hobble in and teach, no matter how much physical agony I’m experiencing.)
This was not a good thing. It’s not what I would call healthy at all.
I complain every time I visit the doctor, but it’s one of those things that will fade away with equal suddenness, so it’s hard to treat. At this last physical, I pushed a little harder, and the doctor decided that we need to do more to get a diagnosis. I went into the blood lab and yielded a quart or two so they can carry out more extensive tests.
All week now, new test results have dribbled into my mailbox. All the usual stuff, like blood pressure, cholesterol levels, a full metabolism panel, etc., etc., etc. are in the perfect range. Uric acid, serum creatine, etc., all good. Thyroid hormones, 5×5. Because I’ve been out in the wilderness more during the summers, they tested for Lyme disease, West Nile, and a whole suite of exotic tick-borne antigens…nope.
If you just go by the numbers, I am like unto Apollo, beautiful and flawless. I don’t think anyone will be sculpting my form, though, and I’m going to remember this when the field season starts up again and my knee swells up like a balloon, again.
(I’ve got it good, though, compared to my daughter Skatje who dislocated her knee on a skiing trip a few weeks ago. Her imminent fate is “Left knee MPFL reconstruction and tibial tubercle osteotomy, open reduction internal fixation of osteochondral fragment from patella dislocation,” in doctorese. It could be worse.)
Skatje is a post-doctoral researcher, so like me, there is no excuse, she still must go in to work on her crutches and do computerish thingies.
Not having a diagnosis for obvious medical problems is deeply frustrating. I hope you are able to continue to push your doctor to find real answers. And meanwhile, although I’m sure a flare up or knee or ankle would help in that process I hope you don’t have one.
Wow, this all sounds painful and scary. I hope you both find some relief soon.
It’s times like this we might wish we had that anti-gravity thingie that Baron Harkonnen got about with. That would certainly get your students’ attention, at least.
BTW, I finally saw Dune 2, and was rather pleasantly surprised. Visually stunning all around, and I did appreciate the messed-up, unsatisfactory “resolution” at the end — it was a pretty realistic picture of how real revolutionary armed struggles “end.” (But damn, Paul Atriedes was kind of an idiot — all that training and spice and “water of life” and mystical-matriarchal-realpolitik guidance, and he still didn’t foresee how the Empire would respond to his demand? I didn’t need no stinkin’ spice to see that coming! And he’s had these visions of colossal human suffering, gets scared because he thinks he’ll be the cause of it — but he starts a wider interstellar war anyway?! Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?! Was Henry Kissinger part of that ancient Bene Jessrit bloodline?)
Sometimes chronic or repeated inflammation is triggered by some environmental antigen(s). Things like elimination diets can help find the cause. They are a drag, but if a solution is found it can be a huge relief. Good luck with the medical sleuthing.
Dear Skatje:
Been there. Done that, with a bonus “patella in four pieces.” (Don’t jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Especially not the little ones used for “skydiving,” because almost by definition they’re not perfectly good.)
Remember this critically important thing: Only you can do the necessary postoperative therapy correctly (imagine Smoky the Bear supervising the weight room). Physical therapists are at least as important to your middle- and long-term recovery as the surgeon. Don’t overdo it; don’t underdo it. Follow the directions (and get an appropriate nutritional consult, too, because postoperative recovery is enough different from “normal living” that you’ll need at least temporary adjustments).
Maybe it’s gout?
My otherwise extremely healthy Dad has gout. He barely eats any meat anymore as a result, since it doesn’t take much for a flareup. It took years for him to get a doctor to diagnose it.
Your foot, which is usually good, as feet go, suddenly starts to burn like hellfire and touching it makes a severe toothache start feeling pretty good. How hard is that to diagnose as gout?
PZ, if you haven’t already, you might want to consider being evaluated by a specialist. Orthopedist, or Podiatrist. You had a steroid injection in the not too distance past and it helped for a while. The symptoms keep recurring, your uric acid is normal, so probably not gout related. I would go to an Orthopedist. He may want to inject you with steroids again. Repeated steroid injects at the same site can cause tissue damage. Also, steroid injections are called local, however, some of the steroid does leak out, gets absorbed and effects can be felt systemically (eventually) causing additional problems over time. Not sure if your heel spurs on your Achilles or Plantar Fascia, but it sounds like you may need more than steroid injects.
All those good results remind of a dentist I had years ago who, after poking a prodding all around inside my piehole, finally shook his head and said “this is really disappointing. I have boat payment coming due and you’re not helping a bit.”
I should have offered to go bite some ice if he gave me a kickback on the repair cost.
A quart or two? That’s almost two arms full!
(A comedy classic, but it might have aged.)
Delighted to be the first to kick in a ‘More Achilles than Apollo, then?’
I knew someone with similar symptoms; it turned out to be parvovirus.
I had a problem with a hernia that it took years to get diagnosed. It caused me occasionally severe pain and nausea, but only was of short duration and then disappeared. I was still active.
I went several times to doctors, but they said they couldn’t find anything, but I should see a doctor when I had an attack. The problem was the attacks mostly happened on the weekend.
Eventually, after several years I had an attack when doctors’ surgeries were open, and I was able to see a specialist who said – go directly to hospital – you have a strangulated hernia that could end up killing part of your colon. It was my third Hernia operation – they used a different technique than what was used for the two previous operation I had had 20 years earlier.
Best wishes to both you and Skatje. I hope the healthcare providers are able to help you and Skatje solve your medical issues soon.