Dr. Visit Review: October 3, 2007

I went back for my second visit with the new rheumatologist today.  I actually saw his PA, Erin.  I spent half the night last night and a great part of my morning preparing some notes on eosinophilia I wanted to share with them, hopefully convincing them to revisit the whole issue of that being that cause of all this crap.  Sadly, she didn’t seem the least bit interested in what I had to share, but did listen closely to my history about the eosinophilia. 

I was disappointed to learn that my records still hadn’t been transferred over and that probably explains why Erin seemed to be hearing “eosinophilia” for the first time.  I could have sworn I included it in my patient questionaire, but sometimes there’s nothing that leads me in that direction.  It isn’t really a disease and it really isn’t a symptom.  Some docs call it a blood disorder while others consider it nothing more than an abnormal lab finding.  Anyway, realizing that she had no idea about my history with eosinophilia, I almost decided against even mentioning it.  But what did I have to loose, right? 

I told her that I honestly felt all of my symptoms were somehow related to the eosinophilia.  It and it alone could explain everything from GI stuff to the peripheral neuropathy, but every doctor I had seen felt my count wasn’t high enough to cause any damage to tissue.  I also pointed out that even the most experienced hematologist can’t say at precisely which cell count tissue damage can occur.  What’s more, it isn’t just the count that matters, but the duration as well, if not more so, and I’ve had this going on for a few years now.  Stand to reason, my symptoms are getting more severe and more and more systems are being affected.

I’m just hitting the highlights here, but Erin asked to review my symptoms, then went to speak with the doctor.  She re-appeared and said before they could do anything else, they needed to get a CBC and see what my current count is.  I asked her what, if anything, they could do about the eosinophilia and she was honest and said, “Nothing, really.”  Then I was a tad confused.  If there’s nothing they can do, why test for it?  Maybe they are only doing the CBC in the hope of doing me like they did with the SS-A in which my count with one lab was slightly elevated according to their reference range, but normal with another because their range was different.  But then, the reference range for eosinophils doesn’t vary that greatly.  For the most part, labs agree that normal is 1 to 3% with optimal count as something like 2.5%.  Some labs go as high as 5%.  Regardless, anything over 6% is considered eosinophilia and mine is typically 7% or higher.  I think it is odd how no one but me seems to notice that 6% is twice the normal amount and considering these are toxin-producing fighter cells, having two times the normal number of eosinophils means twice the normal amount of toxins, right?  When my count was at 11%, that’s almost 4 times the normal amount (if my math is correct).

Anyway, we will know in a couple of days what the results are and go from there I guess.  If nothing else, maybe they can help me find a hematologist with experience in this disorder.