The Pheo Phiasco--Cue Circus Music

It's time for an update about my wife's Pheo issue and what's being done about it. Had I written this yesterday, it would have been a very different post than it is today, but such is how life has been of late on that score.

Last week Dorothy called the surgeon's office in Iowa, the doctor we had hoped to have perform the procedure. Dorothy talked with his nurse for some time, and was told, and I kid you not, that the surgeon didn't think she had a Pheo, that they really didn't see it on the CAT scan and that what they did see was just a speck and not by the adrenal gland anyway. She was also told that the surgeon requires a Pheo to show up in the blood work, and Dorothy's blood test didn't have the expected markers, and that he wouldn't open her up unless he was sure the Pheo was really there. She was also told that our Dr. we saw in Iowa was going to recant everything he said about there being a Pheo.

Dorothy was crestfallen when she told me, our hopes dashed for a swift resolution to her problems. Not only that, we didn't even have a diagnosis any more. After she told me all she knew, I did point out that it simply didn't add up. Who are these people reading the radiology results and finding things that aren't there? Why should the surgeon be trusted over them? If our Dr. has changed his mind, why hasn't he called us? And I told her we weren't going to take this nurse's word for it until we had our own people tell us.

But a week went by with no phone call from our local specialist nor from our Dr. out in Iowa. Finally yesterday Dorothy called the nurse we had talked to before with our Iowa guy, who had been so helpful. It immediately became clear that we had been poorly informed. I could go down a list of mistakes, but the bottom line is that the surgeon's nurse had most of the important facts wrong. But then, we called them, not the other way around. The diagnosis of a Pheo was still valid, and yes, our Dr. still thought it was right where he said it was. The issue the surgeon had was that the Pheo tell-tales in the blood work were not there. But our specialist was comfortable that the reason for this was because Dorothy had been on alpha and beta blocking meds for 5 months, which had entirely suppressed the chemical factory in the Pheo. So it was going to be some time before the Pheo would once again betray itself with chemical markers.

So what it all came down to was simply that we wouldn't be going out to Iowa as soon as we'd hoped we would, but once Dorothy's Pheo shows up in the blood analysis again, we should be able to plan a trip there.

I just hope this post remains valid for awhile.

In other news, it's been a quiet morning at work. A couple of minor surprises that didn't turn into much and were resolved rapidly. I got quite a bit of writing done yesterday, and began a discussion with one of my SIGMA mates. And the ADHD medicine is still working, and I feel fine.