Doctors, Doctors, and More Doctors

The worst possible thing to do when you have a physical ailment is to Google it. I have pretty sound reasoning behind this - it's called leading. If you go to a doctor with swelling, and you've Googled TI diabetes + swelling, you may come up with kidney disease. If you go to the doctor with swelling and you mention kidneys, then they will look at your kidneys. My ankles and legs were swollen badly, and the swelling would not go away. There was no injury, simply massive swelling and pain. Pain as in I felt like my ankles were going to burn off my leg. Ice and elevation were no help overall, but did relieve some of the problem, but I would stand up and it was back to square one.

Back to doctors - Rome Dr says I've quit smoking and started to work out, so my body is "protesting." He refuses any tests or medication, and he tells me it will get better over time because this is all in my head. I seek refuge with my AL Dr. Here's the kidney line. We come up with this is a kidney problem. Of course whenever I'm going to the doctor, there is no swelling and no pain. It hides like an ostrich would hide it's head in the sand. AL Dr puts me on diuretics and tests my kidneys. I wait two weeks, and he wants me to see a urologist.
Rome urologist is an absolute a-hole. I was wasting his time. I had no kidney problems, no swelling, no pain - I'm a hypochondriac and sends this back to Rome Dr who notes this to me on my next visit.

Then one day, for no particular reason, the swelling came back. No injury in mind (but I'll use my usual excuse that I've fallen off my heels again) and I call my Rome Dr to schedule an appointment for him to take a look see. Can't get one for a week? OK. (I work 100 yards from his office at that time and they would not let me come over and just show the extent of the damage). In a week, the swelling has recoiled back to it's turtle in a shell state, and my Rome Dr calls me a seeker even though I've never asked for one pain drug.

At this point, I want to pause and give you a description of my ankles - They are twice the size of my normal ankles. It looks like I have a grapefruit taped laterally around. The swelling is into the top of my foot and I can feel it sloshing like Jell-O when I walk. My legs are swollen twice their size also. They are shiny and have split open in a few places. But it comes and it goes, and it was never there when I saw a doctor.

I had intermittent times of swelling and relief. There was a time when the balls of my feet were VERY sore to walk on, and I sought a podiatrist for it, but he couldn't find any problems either. My point in this entry today is that none of my doctors knew what was going on, and for 3 years I went through cycles of pain and relief. I was fat. That's all. I was swelling because I was fat. Lose weight and problem solved. WRONG!!!