Unknown Illness

Whatever unknown illness I have is acting up again. Unknown whether it's rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, or celiac. Or it could be something else entirely.

Yesterday I was walking to my building and got extremely tired. When I got to my office, I had to sit down and try to regain some energy to work on my TA presentation. I came out of it when I started sweating.

Last night, I felt very tired around 10:30 or 11 pm, which is unusual for me lately because I've been going to sleep around 12:30. I slept well last night-- as in it didn't take me too long to fall asleep and I only woke up once-- but woke up feeling very tired with really sore ankles.

Today I've been tired all day. Doing my household chores was tiring. I'm sitting here writing this instead of working on my thousands of things to do, because I'm trying to gain enough energy to get to work.

I'm really frustrated with the healthcare system we have here. The rheumatology clinic in Fargo is STILL checking my referral. First of all, I don't even need a referral for my insurance. The referral is for their records only. Second of all, I was told it would take them 1-1.5 weeks to check my referral. It has now been over 3 weeks. So annoying. Maybe I'll keep my July appointment for Grand Forks rheumatology after all. >_<

Seriously, it should be illegal to make a patient wait this long to be told what is wrong with them. I had bloodwork done and I KNOW that there is something wrong with me. The tests show that I have a positive ANA and a borderline anti-nuclear test. I have SOME SORT of auto-immune disorder. Now they're making me wait obscene amounts of time to figure out WHICH ONE.

Meanwhile, I'm suffering from time to time whenever this thing flares up. I don't have the energy to exercise, which is something that I actually love doing. I don't have the energy to work on all my end-of semester craziness. All I feel like doing is lying on the couch and watching Moulin Rouge.

If I could just figure out what disease I actually have, I could start treatment for it. Instead, I'm stuck waiting. I wonder how many people die from an illness because of the obscene waiting times to get additional testing done.