Do y'all get sore lymph nodes?

[Patze]

Hi Lurker,

You have to sign a paper?  Wow!  Got to be to cover this guy's back end, and Lucy's got a good point, could be the wave of the future, how sad for the patients.

I used to always get urine tested at the rheumys, but haven't had to for the last several appointments.

And I'm still laughing at the chicken on crack comment, too funny!


Patze

[lurkernomore]

I don't know Patze. The rheumy specifically said that the paperwork as well as the urine testing were all being done because the DEA is now enforcing it in any practice where scheduled meds were being prescribed. He acted very ticked about having to do it. I know he moved his practice once, due to some medical politics going on within the place where he was before.

I am not one who will take more meds than prescribed as a general rule. But when you are in a flare with both the fibro and the Sjogren's and you are only allowed two per day, you have a sick MIL and you get the news that your 31 year old cousin is having surgery for Multiple Myeloma, everything hurts worse and you just want the hurting to stop so you can at least rest when you get the chance to, ya know? Still, I am worried sick that he will drop me and that would pretty much devastate me right now. I wish I knew how these tests work, whether they just check to see if the prescribed meds are in your system, if there are "illicit street drugs" in the mix, or if there are levels of what has been prescribed that can be over a certain limit.

I have heard that some patients do not learn they have been dismissed until their next appointment. And my next appointment is not until September. That is an awfully long time to wait, wonder and worry. I have my first grandchild due in July. I do not need this clouding my happiness right now. I would even be willing to either drop the Soma or substitute it for something else, rather than have him drop me as a patient. Especially right now, with starting the Plaquenil again and after what he said about keeping an eye on these enlarged lymph nodes. I am afraid I am just going to be left out in the cold altogether now.

[Linda196]

I'm not sure of the legalities where you live, but it seems to me that if your are being tested, you have a legal right to know what for, who has access to the results, and what, if any, actions can or will be taken based on the results. Can you ask the doctor or the office those questions?

[lurkernomore]

The way he explained it to me, it was just a new thing the DEA is having doctors do (he even said it gave him a huge pain in the backside to have to deal with it) and so we would be doing it that day. I have to admit that I was so caught off guard, because of never having been drug tested for anything, that it made me feel a bit paranoid and I still feel a bit paranoid.

Even though I know, in my heart, the worst thing I could get in trouble for would be doubling my Soma for a couple of days before this appointment, and I expect that if anything were to come of it, he would either refuse to prescribe anything for me, or he'd drop me as a patient, I just feel uneasy about it all. I do not think I have done myself any favors by trying to find anything on the subject online either. Because although I have not found anything specific to help me, I have read of false negatives and false positives. Now that really makes me worry.

I wish I knew an RN who worked in a doctor's office that I could ask how the tests are read out. Also, how long it takes to get the results back, etc. I feel as if Big Brother has really gone too far this time.

[Maria3667]

Yes I get a lump too ---- in my thigh.... it's been sitting there for years. Rheumy says it's okay as long as it's "mobile" (able to move it around a little).

Just recently I found something that really reduces the swelling... It's as simple as a cup of tea. Green tea that is! I drink about 5 - 10 cups per day and it's working miracles  !

[lurkernomore]

Hmmm, green tea, eh? I could definitely handle that! Thanks for the suggestion!

[lurkernomore]

Hi all,
Just a quick update on my last rheumy appointment. If you all recall, I was feeling a wee bit uneasy that I was "drug-screened" for pete's sake, after having been a patient of this doctor's for about seventeen years now. I understand that when the DEA says a doctor has to do something, they have no choice. So I took the test and no probs there. I got my little paper in the mail about two weeks later and he had just written across the page, "drug screen o.k."

Now I have been back on the Plaquenil for exactly one week. I seem to be tolerating it much better this time around. I think it was the GERD causing me so much N&V with it in the past. As for the lymph nodes, they seem to be less touchy and swollen, so that seems to be resolving itself for the present. I hope everyone here had a pleasant Easter and if we can just hold on, we will soon be needing to crank up the good old AC!

[Chickpea]

Hi Lurker

Thanks for the update.  It's good to hear the good news about the Plaquenil.  Are you starting it gradually?  Pooh always advised taking it with food, especially yogurt, and I found that helped a lot. 

Good news too about the lymph nodes.  Must be a relief!  The drug screen 'ok' must have been too.  What a time you've had!

Bet you can't wait for the summer and the arrival of your first grandchild in July.  We'll be thinking of you.

Take care - Chickpea

[lurkernomore]

Thank you Chickpea! It surely has been a wild few months. But hopefully I will be regulated and adjusted to the Plaquenil and feeling more energy, have more moisture and less brain fog. Gosh, that sounds like a really tall order from just one med, but I remain optimistic. And then...in just a little while, we will be welcoming little Ava Grace into the world. Yay!

[kimbo]

Lurkernomore,

Glad you got resolve on the worry of the ua test.

Very excited for you, about your 1st grandchild. Wonderful experience! congratulations.

blessings kimbo

[eyeamdry]

The way he explained it to me, it was just a new thing the DEA is having doctors do (he even said it gave him a huge pain in the backside to have to deal with it) and so we would be doing it that day. I have to admit that I was so caught off guard, because of never having been drug tested for anything, that it made me feel a bit paranoid and I still feel a bit paranoid.

Doctors are as bad as we patients..  They are whining about what the DEA or AMA makes them do, plus insurance companies. Blah, blah,  I think they holler and whine more than we do. 

Lurker, I wouldn't worry about this dr testing you.  Also, if he is going to kick you out, he'll find a way to do so and you are probably worried for nothing.  (Quit borrowing trouble. :-)..)

Also, I urge all women to not pay attention to "it's nothing" when you have a lump in your breast, or underarm area close to the breast.  My lump was movable and it was also cancer.  My second opinion surgeon said most cancers are attached and not movable,  well mine was movable.  This is not worth trusting a brush off or it's "nothing."  I had a breast cancer dx just six months after Sjs diagnosis.  I was so busy being sick with Sjs, that I neglected the lump.  My bad and my drs bad.  Sjs won't kill you, but cancer can.  Lucy

BTW, I do NOT get lymph node enlargement or swelling.

[lurkernomore]

Hi there,
Well, it's all good on the med screen. I got a letter from my rheumy's office and for the first time in a couple of decades-I passed one of his tests, LOL! Yay for me, huh?

So you don't get swollen or enlarged lymph nodes? Wow! That is what made my rheumy decide to test me for Sjogren's, as I was seeing him for Fibro only at the time. And that was a test I could not study for-like a pop quiz...and so I flunked it!

[lurkernomore]

Thank you Kimbo. How very sweet you are. Yep, it's been a time, but it's much better now. Now we can just relax and count the time until that bebee gets here! We had two sons, never had any girls, so I am going pink crazy and to beat it all, Carter's is having a big sale!

[KYMOM]

Lurkernomore, I have a good friend that has hereditary pancreatitis.  On too many meds to count.  When she went to a new pain management center in Cincinnati, OH they not only drug tested her but sent her to a shrink as part of their program.  She now gets drug tested during every appt but only had to go the the shrink the one time. 

Grandchildren are great!  Everyone says that but until it is experienced you don't know how different it is going to be.  Love being able to buy little people clothes again.  Let us know when she gets here.  Pics are great too.
Roxanne

[lurkernomore]

Thank you KYMOM. I am wondering if, by your screen name, you are from Kentucky?

Yes, I knew that pain management clinics did the contract, drug screen test. I was just caught unaware because in the 17 years I have been seeing my rheumy, I'd never had to do that before. But it was all good, so that is a good thing.

I would LOVE to post pics, if only I knew how. Also, my dear DIL is being so mysterious about the due date that it makes it sketchy for me to know exactly when to expect little Ava. All I know is that I am as excited as can be about the whole thing! After having two sons, I cannot wait for this little girly to come along and give me a reason to go all pink! (Now watch, with my luck she will be a big tomboy and not want to do any girly stuff.) Ha, but I'm going to love her to bits, however she turns out.