Arthritis R Us, family for Alice a plus 2

Today I had my long-awaited rheumatologist appointment. I wanted to take Hestia, and the appointment was over an hour away and supposed to take 2-2.5 hours. So Alice got to stay with Aunt Nancy and Cousin Tamara! They picked her up before we left, and she seemed happy enough to go with Tamara.

As we were driving down to our appointment, I got a few texts about how well Alice was doing, which was really nice.

We arrived to the appointment, and when I was checking in, the receptionist told me I was the first person she’d ever seen who completed all the paperwork they had sent me correctly! It did take me an hour to do it, so I guess others just got tired of filling the forms out or something?

While I was in the waiting room, another receptionist came over to talk with me about Hestia. She was really nice and so I told her a little about Hestia, and she told me about her dog.

Then about 5 minutes later, someone else from the practice who stayed down the hallway behind me so I couldn’t see them sent that same nice receptionist over to me. She said “I’m supposed to ask for her [Hestia’s] papers?”. I replied that legally there is no such thing. She looked confusedly at the person in the hallway, so I knew it wasn’t her choice to be there and ask me these questions!

I told her about the two questions that you can ask and answered them. She looked back over to the person in the hallway, got a signal from them, and then said that was OK. That poor receptionist being sent to do someone else’s legally incorrect bidding!

Then it was time for my appointment. We walked in the room and saw it was decorated with an old car theme! They had one wall full of old license plates, and another with old gas station signs. We got pictures of us in front of the walls before the doctor came in. I am wearing my pink dress with Hestia in her purple vest in front of license plates. Brad is wearing blue and butterflies in front of the gas station signs.

When the doctor came in, he was very nice! I like him a LOT! He is competent, he listened to me, and he explained things well. I think he liked having me as his patient, too, since I was able to understand everything he said and ask intelligent questions.

In the end he said he doesn’t think it’s likely I have fibromyalgia. He thinks I have two types of arthritis. I definitely have osteoarthritis in my hips. My hands and knees are some type of inflammatory arthritis. He thinks the two most likely ones are either rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis.

Luckily their office has a lab and X-ray machine in it, because he wanted to get more labs and more X-rays done. So I was able to get those before I left!

The blood draw was interesting. Normally I hold Hestia in one arm while the other is having the blood draw. But the phlebotomist wanted me to use my right hand to prop up my left arm. So I had to kinda wedge Hestia in between my hip and the chair’s armrest (she couldn’t be in front of me because the phlebotomist needed that space for all the vials). I had 9 vials of blood drawn!

Next I had a urine test. While I was collecting my specimen, Hestia tried to break into my purse where the treats are kept! LOLOL she was taking advantage of the situation!

Finally it was time for the X-rays. Hestia is an old pro at that!

It was an hour and a half drive then to get back to Nancy and Tamara’s house to pick up Alice. Apparently she had a great time there! They took her out to potty about every hour LOL! She got chicken (I gave them some to give her), jumped on the couch, got lots of petting, and ran around a whole lot. Apparently she LOVED the sliding glass door! I’m surprised she went willingly with me when I picked her up LOL!

It was a super busy day, but luckily I don’t go back to the doctor for a little over a month. They were apologetic that they couldn’t get me in sooner, but I welcomed the chance to have a break from doctor’s appointments!