The Post Where I Try To Make it Seem Like I'm Not Afraid

Remember how at the beginning of 2009 I made a list of 52 things I wanted to accomplish during the year? One of those things was to see my doctor about my stomach issues and the finger joint stiffness that seemed to plague me.

Well, I never officially went in to talk about either of those things. Why not? One, because I'm a wimp. Two, anytime I went to the doctor it was for being sick then and there with something else. And three, I'm a big wimp.

So, a couple weeks ago I noticed I had some pain in my right (dominant) hand. Somewhere around my thumb. It was hard to pinpoint exactly where the pain was at the point, but it was worse when I moved my thumb around. In the back of my mind, I decided that it would probably go away within a couple days and I tried to ignore it.

That weekend, I was finally able to pinpoint where the pain was and it centralized itself there. It was in the small joint of my thumb, and the pain was a bit worse than it had been. I considered this, and went to work on Monday morning.

While at the office, I picked up my pen to start jotting some things down and I realized that I couldn't grip the pen entirely well because of the pain. And then while I was holding the phone to my ear with that hand, I could feel some numbness and tingling spreading across the bottom of my palm between my thumb and pinky.

It was then that I decided to suck it up and call my doctor.

Long story short, she prescribed a NSAID for me, and sent me away with orders for x-rays and bloodwork.

It was a long week, and finally at 4:30pm this past Friday, she called me. She began the conversation with my x-ray results (nothing looked abnormal) and then moved on to the bloodwork. The ANA (antinuclear antibody) test they ran came back positive. She said the positive was "borderline" and that it "could mean nothing", but that given my symptoms, she thinks there's something going on. And then she referred me to a rheumatologist.

And that's where I stand. And that's all I'm going to post about it right now. I will make the phone call tomorrow to see about getting in to see the rheumatologist soon.