“How urgent is this? ”
What else can I do to see a specialist ASAP? I feel I have not been a good mother or wife for the last decade and want to feel like myself again! Plus we had a tornado completely destroy our home 12/26/2015 - yes the day after Christmas - welcome to Texas - and although we were not at home, the psychiatrist at Mayo diagnosed me with PTSD. Never even crossed our minds since we didn’t live through the actual tornado. But made perfect sense once she explained why.
Thank you for any feedback.
Female | 50 years old
Complaint duration: 10 years
Medications: 1 mg Klonopin pm - REM sleep disorder, adderall (for hypersomnolence), Zoloft, Emgality - migraine, relpax as needed, omeprazole 40mg for GERD, pravastin 20mg
Conditions: Migraine, extreme fatigue (daytime hypersomnolence) , restless legs, tinnitus, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, REM sleep disorder, chronic GERD, high cholesterol (hereditary)
3 Answers
(2) Low iron stores mean that you're either losing it somewhere or you are not absorbing it or both. If you still have periods and they are heavy, see your gynecologist. For gastrointestinal losses there's a cheap test--stool samples for blood--and it can be can be done this week. You mark the little cards, and your doctor should be able to test them right there in the office.
(3) Unless your periods are very very heavy, ask the GP to refer you to a gastroenterologist, who should be available sooner than the hematologist. He (female ones are pretty rare) will probably want to scope your esophagus, stomach and small bowel to look for ulcers and also for atrophic gastritis which interferes with iron & vitamin B12 absorption. Since you are 50 he will probably do a colonoscopy at the same time (Hint: some of the prep solutions you drink for that are very expensive, so complain if he uses one of them).
(4) If the GI doctor turns up nothing, then the hematologist can wait UNLESS your hemoglobin is less that 8 or hematocrit less than 24.
(5) The 10-year history of diverse problems--me, I would go to the smartest rheumatologist you can find. That may require a trip back to Mayo.
