Friday, January 30, 2009

Got Hope?

It's been a while since I've posted, yet there have been some things going on.

First off, I'm taking a couple of classes at the community college this semester. Nutrition and Developmental Psychology. I'm now 2 weeks into each of the courses, and I think that Nutrition is going to continue to be super easy, and that Psychology professors are crazy! But I guess that they already know that! My psych class should be more challenging since it's definitely well outside of my major. I can't believe that I'm saying this, but I missed school. I missed learning and being even somewhat challenged on a daily basis. This whole taking classes thing is definitely going to be good for me!

Secondly, the crazy office manager at the vet clinic was fired! Come to find out, she had been completely taking advantage of and lying to everyone and doing things that were absolutely nuts for months! She just managed to manipulate and lie to get out of it once things started to get messy. In one way, it was a relief to find out that the things that were going on were nothing personal, and that the owners didn't even know about them, but at the same time, it really ticked me off! I cannot believe that she got away with all that she did! By the time that everything came out, none of us were to speak with her if she called, and she wasn't allowed in the building anymore. Wow! Nutso! Anyway, many of the wrongs at work were made right, or at least made better, and the atmosphere is a lot better. People actually laugh and are happy. Crazy how things change when people aren't afraid they're going to be fired every day!

Lastly, after another wonderful autoimmune flare up, a dozen doctors appointments, and being pushed to the border of insanity by doctors who truly don't give a damn, things might be looking up! Although I'm still feeling pretty crappy, frustrated, and "just like losing my faith in humanity," I may have found an MD who actually cares and is interested in my case. Lemme explain. As more and more symptoms developed, my mom and I started doing research into multiple autoimmune diseases, but particularly one, Behcet's Syndrome, which seems to closely match my symptoms. While doing research, we became aware that there is a Behcet's Syndrome Center in NYC. The doctors there specialize in the diagnosis and treatment of Behcet's as well as conduct research on the disease there. After years of not calling, this last flare up led my mom to pick up the phone and give them a call. They told her to email the doctor there, so she did. And he responded! He thinks that it would be worthwhile to take a trip to NY to see him. Wow. Maybe he's not going to be able to figure anything out, but I feel like he's at least going to give it a fair shot. Hope is a wonderful thing. I just can't get too excited. Don't wanna set myself up for failure yet again.

I guess that's it. For now anyway.

6 comments:

Joanne Zeis said...

You made a great call by contacting Dr. Yazici. He should be able to sort things out for you -- and if you don't have Behcet's, he'll at least point you in the right direction.
I've had Behcet's for 29 years. You might want to watch the Discovery Health show about my 17-year search for a diagnosis -- you can see the link (along with other Behcet's-related website links) at: http://www.bdshowonline.com
All the best,
Joanne Zeis
http://behcets.blogspot.com

Turfdraagster said...

holy smokes

Manders said...

yeah, I know!

Dave to Claire said...

Good luck Amanda! I really want you to get better and figure this all out!

Anonymous said...

Re: Joanne Zeis-----Kathy Mattea's "He Keeps Sending Me Angels" is running thru my mind a lot. Like our house still standing after the fire & all the GU connections we suddenly had as you were deciding on schools----I have no other explanation.
Love ya,
Mom

Joanne Zeis said...

Hi Amanda,
I got the email that you sent -- thanks :-) I found your blog because I'd signed up for Google Blog Alerts. I get notified any time someone has a blog post that includes the word "Behcet's" in it. So you were the "winner" on the 31st. ;-)
If you'd like to stay in touch, let me know. The email that I got from you didn't have a usable return address, so the only way to get back in touch with you was to leave another comment.
Hang in there,
Joanne jzeis at charter dot net