I went to see my specialist for my third visit on May 24, 2010. I went with a list in hand of my concerns / questions. I would like to share my appointment with you.

At my last appointment, she had given me a prescription for blood work, and I had it done at my primary care physician's office in plenty of time to have the results back to her before this visit. Well, apparently they didn't send her the results. Another mental note to self... I need to follow up on blood work and make sure the results are sent to the doctor before my appointment. She immediately asked her office assistant to follow up and see if she could get the results. She was trying to get them while I was there for my appointment. She ended up calling me on my cell phone shortly after I left my appointment that day. The results showed that my iron was very low. She wanted it to be 50 something and mine was 20 something. She told me to just pick up an iron supplement at the pharmacy and to ask the pharmacist for a kind that would upset my stomach the least. She wants me to take one pill a day and after two weeks increase it to two pills if my stomach can tolerate it.

I wanted to know if I could take any allergy medicine and, if so, which ones were ok. she told me Zyrtec or Claritin would be fine just not to take Zyrtec "D" or Claritin "D."

Since I was confused about my diagnosis, I asked her just so I would know for sure what my diagnosis is. She said it is chronic Migraine with aura and, mostly, Migraine without aura. (I've only had aura symptoms a handful of times over the past three years.)

I asked her if I could medicate early (before a six) if it was a high trigger day. For example, if I know I am going to be outside in the bright sun with a lot of noise can I medicate at a three or a four instead of waiting to get to a six. She said I could do that occasionally without any problems.

She also stressed that I will do better with less medicine. She reminded me that I don't want to medicate any more than I absolutely have to... the least amount of medicine the better.

She wanted me to have blood work done for atypical celiac disease. She gave me a prescription and asked me to do this before my next appointment. Apparently her clinic had at least one patient recently to test positive for atypical celiac disease. She said that when they followed the recommended diet for atypical celiac disease the patient(s) had shown some improvements with their Migraines. Another proactive measure and some more hope of something that may help.

We talked about my getting up to go the bathroom in the middle of the night. I usually get up once every night and she wants me sleeping through the night. She reminded me to not drink water just to be drinking water. She said to only drink if I am thirsty. She also said that if I eat supper later to make it a "dry" meal. She suggested moving the fruits and salads to lunch instead of supper because they would make me go to the bathroom more.