I went to my new kidney doctor this afternoon and was very impressed. He's an Indian doctor, fresh out of nephrology training - Call me prejudice, but I've always had fantastic results with Indian doctors. I prefer them, in fact. I don't know what it is, exactly... probably something to do with the doctor I had for 4 years in California who I became very close with (and who took better care of me than anyone else). She's Indian and maybe that made me subconsciously trust Indian doctors more. The new doctor paid very close attention to everything I was saying and made detailed notes. I think he realized right off the bat that I know what I'm talking about when it comes to my disease and kidney failure in general. I made it a point to duplicate what he was telling me so he would know I understood. He didn't really tell me anything that I didn't know already, but he kept saying "I'm just making sure we're all on the same page in terms of treatment and options..." That made me feel great. He knows I'm in charge of my own health and he knows that he is here to help facilitate that. Warm fuzzies. The bottom line is still - more tests. I expected this somewhat, so I'm not too surprised. Every new doctor always has their cycles they need to go through. He did acknowledge my need for immediate action and made another appointment with me for 3 weeks from today. He ordered additional labs that I hadn't thought of (and hadn't asked my regular doc to order) and the dreaded 24 hour urine collection. When I told him I hate doing the 24 hour collections, he said I could do a 4 or 6 our collection instead and then he would multiply. Yippee! A doctor on my level, finally. He also gave me a new prescription for some special multi-vitamins that will help with my anemia. He will most likely start the Epogen injections (for anemia) at my next appointment, but wanted to get an accurate measure of my total kidney function first (with the urine collection). He also has some interesting ideas about treatment. Increase my ACE inhibitors to decrease the level of protein in my urine... and try another round of a new immunosuppressant (CelCept) to see if that decreases the creatinine level. I'm willing to try anything at this point, but I am not looking forward to taking immunosuppressants.... Nasty side-effects, usually. Oh well, I've been on all the others so I suppose trying something again won't hurt. I'm stressed about the whole Tri-Care and insurance thing. Most likely I'll have to pay for this visit out of my own pocket. The doctor's office thought they were set up on the insurance system, but come to find out, they are not. They're doing the paperwork for it (just for me, how nice!) but it will be weeks before it is formalized. Hopefully I'll be able to get a possible reimbursement... Of course, this is all with me hanging on to Tri-Care and who knows how long that will last or when Tom will decide to remove me from the system. Today I'm feeling really tired, sick, rundown. I'll get better, though... it's the weekend!
