It Is Mostly Good

It is Wednesday and I had an appointment with the rheumatologist, Dr. Tayar, as a follow up and with the idea he would give me steroid shots in the shoulders to help with the pain again. It has been about 5 months and he had said I could get another shot if I needed one since the other one had been so effective. I brought him up to date on the neurologist, Dr. Loghin, and the EMG and the MRI she had ordered. So far there is nothing in those tests but neuropathy in both forearms and in the hands, mostly in the thumbs with carpal tunnel in both wrists. There is evidence of mild to moderate reduction in the sensory and motor function in the arms and hands and some evidence of a bulging discs at C-5 and C-6, but not enough to explain my symptoms. She has ordered more blood work and so we wait for the results of those. It was Dr. Tayar who recommended that I needed to see a rheumatologist in the first place for the tendinitis. After reading those reports he did an ultra sound of my left shoulder, the one that was the worst. It showed the tear, the same as the last time and perhaps a bit "brittle" at the edges. That was cause for concern and he started to speculate on what to do next. Steroids could increase the brittleness and maybe he should refer me to a surgeon. He decided it would be best to get a better look at things and that meant a MRI of the shoulder. Steroids might have an adverse affect on the images on the MRI. So the MRI  is on the schedule for Friday at 8:00 pm or anytime after that until they get everyone done. The last time it was about 10:30 before I got out of there. Out of all these tests there has been no, I repeat, NO SIGN OR TALK OF ADDITIONAL CANCERS. That's the "Good News". I was thinking last night that there was no big sigh of relief or release. I wondered, "Why not"? The answer that came to me, "There are more tests to go". Who knows? I am, however, more convinced now that there is no cancer there. All of these other problems are severely debilitating but that is the topic for another blog.