I'm sick guys - long, but not rambling, just comprehensive

Thanks for the good info.  You know, my first appt with the internist was actually with his nurse practitioner (MUCH shorter wait for initial appt) and she gave me a copy of things that had initially occurred to the internist (whom she consulted with while I waited) or her of possible things, which did include Celiacs.  So, initially, I was thinking he might be testing for the antibodies to those things as well, which led me to purposely eat gluten twice the day before testing in the theory of it is that, I want to boost the antibodies so as not to get a potential false negative.

I did get food allergy testing done by antibodies around 2006 when I saw a naturopathic dr.  I still have a copy of them.  I don't remember if it was IgG or IgE (I think the latter) testing, but I had mostly stopped eating gluten in the months before the test in an effort to eat low carb to reduce weight.  Yet the antibodies still came in at the moderate/maximum range, as did gliadin and a ****LOAD of other things - milk, eggs, whey, potatoes, peanuts, sweet potatoes, some vegetables, some fruits . . . I don't remember everything, but what it really came down to was I could only eat all meats, seafoods, rice, most veggies, and most fruits.  She suspected it was due to candidasis.  I took some "Candigone" for awhile and avoided the things most of the time (some "slips", but maybe 1 - 2/ month) for probably 5 months or so.  I had some minor joint pain and inflammation then.  I did notice that when I stuck to avoiding everything on that list, I was fine.  When I had something I shouldn't, I would immediately gain 2 - 3 pounds (next day) of water weight and have some inflammation and joint pain.

I avoided most of those things for about a yr when I was in my first yr post-op so I was rather hoping everything was fine.  Maybe I should get retested.

As someone who has worked in allergy (researcher, not a med doc!), I can tell you that antibody skin ***** testing is like hitting the side of a barn. Unfortunately, there is rarely anything better unless you suspect a particular food antigen and the doc has a blood test for those.

The best bet when dealing with food allergies is an elimination diet. First culprit, gluten. Many people have an intolerance, but don't have genetic Celiacs. "Acquired" Celiacs is really a misnomer. 

Even after eliminating offending foods, your blood work can still show elevated inflammation markers for up to 2 weeks afterwards (depending how high they were initially). 

An elimination diet is slow. Each food needs to be introduced slowly. Like I said earlier, the quick an dirty way would be to start with gluten.  Peanuts have very intense allergens (as experienced by acute allergy in some poor folks). Just eliminating those two foods alone and then test in 30 days would be a good start.

An endocrinologist deals with hormone issues and so far, you don't have any. An allergist will probably tell you what I just told you, but can order specific blood tests for food allergens if you want to pay the money.  Never ever go to a "naturopathic" doc. You are well beyond their expertise now.

Hemotologist, rheumotologist, allergist.. all would be able to help you in some way.

Hugs and feel better soon,
Ratkity

I reckon it's your arthritis but I would demand a thyroid ultrasound to rule out hashimotos disease and also a pelvic ultrasound to rule out big **** off ovarian cysts....but the betting man would go for rheumatism.  A test for HIV wouldn't hurt (though I'm guessing you've already covered that).

Protein is the little vesper scooter that moves about all the drugs you take like a little conveyor belt.  The moment your protein levels tank then you stop utilising medicines efficiently as your little tribe of vespers ends up idling and going no where.  This explains in part why your vites are starting to slide.  Ironically once you become malnourished you set off inflammatory markers and off you go.  Perhaps a very short course of TPN might be all you need to restore equilibrium. 

Hmmmm you mentioned Candida as well.  I wonder if a short courses of fluconazole wouldn't go amiss.  I mean if you're coated in Teflon nothing that goes into your gob is going to be absorbed is it?

Still...all roads lead to arthritis.......but it won't hurt to rule the others out.

Be well my little lamb. x

Thanks, Kirmy!  I just had my annual pap.  If I had enlarged ovarian cysts, do you think her palpitations would have caught that?  I have had an HIV test (negative :)

BTW - when she did the pap, she said that she thought my cervical cells has a slightly yeasty appearance, but just wasn't sure, so she cultured them & it came back negative.  Just in case, though, she gave me a script for Difulcan (which I just read is fulconazole).  If I did have a candida overgrowth, would this help?  I guess I'm asking if it can "target" the intestines.

Difulcan will target intestinal and vaginal thrush if taken orally.  How many doses have you got?  Mostly they just give out one but a few days worth would be the go.  You'll have ****e bowel flora after then so be prepared for skitters! 

A pap smear will not tell you if you've got ovarian cysts you'll need an ultrasound for that.  Being that the cervix and uterus are so vascular I would set about ruling out any source of chronic inflammation from here just in case a minor infection is going about its business undetected buggering everything up.  Having said allllll that I still feel in my water that it is RA. 

I am not a medical doctor - I don't REALLY know what all of this means, of course.

However, my "gut" reaction to at least some of what I read is that you have some kind of infection going on, and it is affecting (obviously) your CRP and WBC numbers, as well as some malabsorption (because of diarrhea? I don't know if you have that) of nutrients.  My low tech way of approaching this would be to consider a course of antibiotics, e.g., flagyl or amoxicillin, and retest the questionable stuff a month or so later.  But I do not know if this is even reasonable.  It's just what comes to mind based on what I sort of "know."

HDLs respond to exercise.  But if your total cholesterol is really low, OF COURSE your HDLs are going to be low - I'd look at the ratio of HDL to total to see if THAT is in range as a better measure.  But I don't really know if that's a factually-based rationalization.

As for the doctor who said we all get liver failure - I'd fire him.

 Diana, I just want to say that I always look forward to your responses!  I really respect your wisdom on such topics!  That is all...

Thanks, Diana.  I think I was typing a reply to Kayla about what you were saying of the WBC and CRP link, which is pretty detailed in my reply to her so I'll just keep this one brief.  My second WBC draw decreased by over 3 points so that it is just outside of normal range (0.8), but my second CRP increased by 65 points, which makes me think it can't be an infection inducing inflammation.

Are you seeing a good hematologist and a good endocrinologist?

I have an initial appt with a hematologist on Wed.  I haven't seen, or really thought of, a good endocrinologist.  One of the reasons for the latter is that the nurse practitioner in the original family practice dr, when she told me they wanted to refer me out, she said that they (2 NPs & 1 dr) all thought that there really wasn't a good endocrinologist in town unless I was willing to maybe travel to Springfield or Tulsa (recommended more than Springfield if I went that route).  I can do either, though Tulsa would be 4 hrs roundtrip, Springfield's only 2.

I was hoping that if I saw an internist that they might be better than the family practice dr at figuring out what was going on.