So frustrated with Doctors right now

[Liberalynn]

I now have a second ailment with physical symptoms that they can clearly observe, they acknowledge it, know what it is, give me meds to treat but once again like my hives have zero clue what's causing it.

In addition to the chronic hives, I've talked about here, I now have an infected lymph node on my neck that hurts like hell and Advil doesn't help.

The doctor once again said I can't understand this because you have no other symptoms other than the swelling and tenderness which I can see and feel and the pain that you feel. He said normally the lymph nodes don't usually get infection unless you have a primary one somewhere else.

I'm getting to the point of saying what's the point in going, if they can't find the answers.

[Dont call me Shirley]

1. I feel your pain. Me and doctors, the same!

Try an experienced highly recommended herbalist, nutritionist doctor.

I'm taking an herbal lymph node tincture which is easing my lymphodemic swelling.

Good healing to you, lynn.

[Liberalynn]

5. Thank You!

I am glad you found a remedy that is helping. The Clinical Social Worker whose been counseling me for the past few years has suggested and recommended one, she has seen. I guess the lady is also a Certified Nurse Practitioner as well so understands both eastern and western medicine. I'm going to call.

[Dont call me Shirley]

7. Good luck! Herbal remedies have helped me immensely. Be patient, it can take time.

[DebJ]

2. Well my GPS, good doctors and I love them, never are able to diagnose when I have

a sinus infection. They use a blood test to check for certain patterns in the blood that appear with infections, but I have a lot of allergies,
which is to say, abnormal immune system responses, and that can cause the blood tests to not indicate when I have a sinus infection.
Now that I've had two in 12 months, I know myself when I have them. I go to an ENT, who doesn't use blood tests, and says they are worthless.... but the ENT also happens to possess the expensive equipment to put a camera into my face and see all my sinus cavities. Then he gives me the antibiotic my GPs refuse to do, et voila! Healed in no time. I've known other people who were sick for weeks and swore it was a sinus infection, but their docs also didn't diagnose a sinus infection, and they were miserable.

I'm saying all this because your swollen lymph node is in your shoulder, not far from your head.

Also, if you have hives, you are having an allergic reaction.

As I have aged (almost 60 now), I've noticed over the last five years that if I don't get enough sleep for a stretch of time, my immune system goes on alert and I end up with stiff and painful joints. The older I get, the more joints. If I am sleeping long enough on a regular basis, I'm fine. In other words, the lesson i picked up is immune system alert = inflammation all over the place, anywhere in the body.

While we sleep, in particular levels of sleep or at certain times of the night, our immune systems are programmed to go into hyper-drive and do house cleaning so to speak on a nightly basis. If I'm not sleeping well, then I'm screwing up my circadian rhythms, and maybe that disturbs the functioning of my immune system... if it doesn't get its chance to house clean at night, then perhaps the impurities in my blood build up to a level that sets alarm bells ringing in my immune system, and there I go...runny nose, coughing, eyes watering, joints aching....all cured by a good night's sleep or sometimes two.

Just random thoughts from a non-doctor.

Good luck!

[Aristus]

3. Sounds like you have an allergic sinus infection.

Your primary care provider is correct not to treat with antibiotics. This is not a bacterial infection, it's an allergic reaction. If he is not treating the allergy concurrently then yes, he is remiss. But treating an allergic reaction with antibiotics is bad medicine.

If this goes against your perception of appropriate care, please keep in mind that this is science. If science was able to prove, for example, that one could cure, say, lung cancer by spraying the patient with chocolate syrup through a fire hose, then that would be the standard of care for lung cancer. Antibiotics don't cure an allergic reaction. I'm betting that your ENT is giving you allergy-appropriate medication to treat your sinus infection, and antibiotics to keep you from complaining that he isn't treating you.

Anyway, your report of your primary care provider's work up for sinus infection is puzzling. I never do a blood test to assess sinus infection. Sinus infections can be diagnosed in nearly every case from history and exam alone. A blood test may show increased white blood cell count, which can point to the infection he should have diagnosed from the history and physical as I said. But if you have an allergic reaction, that should show up plain as day in the form of elevated eosinophils. If you're saying a blood panel will not draw his attention to your allergic reaction, either he is not doing the test you think he is, or you are perceiving his work-up inaccurately.

[DebJ]

4. Thanks Aristus.

He didn't say he was testing for an allergic reaction, but rather for signs of bacterial infection.

The ENT did give me nose drops, a prescription at that time that just went over the counter, and it does say that it fights six different immune system responses. But he could have told me that it was just a severe allergy, and I'd been fine with fact and not taken the antibiotics. I don't like taking meds at all.

I do take Allegra and Singulair daily anyway, because I'd otherwise be miserable (sometimes I miss a dose / forget but my face quickly reminds me as it turns into a waterfall of mucus).

As an aside, though, if my nasal passages had been in a condition of being very swollen, red, raw, painful, for over a month, doesn't that increase the chances of an infection anyway? Like an open wound? Or not.

I'm just glad it got fixed, and I do want to know how/why. So thanks.

[Aristus]

6. I don't think I understood your question.

If you have the symptoms you described for a month, yes, it's an infection. But not bacterial, and very unlikely viral. You already stated you have a chronic allergic condition. It sounds like chronic allergic rhinitis, and it sounds like you are on the appropriate treatment.

If severe symptoms persist, you could talk to your ENT about immunotherapy, if you haven't already.

[Liberalynn]

8. Sinus is a possibility.

I have always had trouble with mine. The node is actually right underneath my chin. The doctor did also bring sinus infection up but said since this is the only symptom I am experiencing now, he's puzzled.

That face camera sounds like a wonderful diagnostic tool. It's good your ENT specialist has one. The Primary Care Doc did give me a referral to one in case the antibiotics don't work.

The lack of sleep might be a factor for me too. I go through periods where my anxiety really peaks and messes with my sleep. The CSW says she thinks that between the anxiety and the depression, and the number of years I've had serious bouts with both, she thinks it's compromised my immune system and that's why all this is happening. The psychiatrist told me that both the AD and Depression will in my case be life long, and the meds can only do so much and I just have to keep practising coping and relaxation techniques to prevent any major relapses.

On the hives they are going to start allergy testing soon.

Thanks! :

[MADem]

9. Have you asked for an antibiotic? Might help.... nt

Can't hurt--it's very benign and OTC.

[Liberalynn]

10. He gave me prescription Amoxicillin.

I'm supposed to take it for seven days and if it's not gone then I have to go to the specialist.

He said he just thinks it's odd that it would get infected on its own with nothing else going on in my system.

[MADem]

11. Something else might be going on, certainly.

You could have had a strep throat or a tooth abcess and not even realized it (rare but it can happen) or gotten a cat scratch!


Or a simple common cold could have decided to cause trouble in that one area.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/swollen-lymph-nodes/basics/causes/con-20029652

Hope you feel better soon. Pain sucks.

[Liberalynn]

12. Thank You!

That link helped a lot. It confirmed what the doctor said about it being less worrisome because it's still moveable and not hard and stationary. I always was prone to upper respiratory infections as a kid, so it's possible I could have had a mild one and just dismissed it as allergies.

[MADem]

13. Hope the antibiotic is helping. Drink lots of fluids, that might help as well.

Feel better!!!