@emacdoug published yesterday in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and thought it might be of interest
in case you don’t have access, try here
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Minor update.
Saw my PCP (GP) on Friday. Again saw a different doctor. This one will hopefully be my actual PCP for the future.
I have an ENT appt this Tuesday. And a follow-up with my GI doc on Feb 26. If they don’t see anything then I will get a referral to an Infectious Disease specialist.
Ever since I stopped my 3 week course of prednisone I’ve had sinus pressure and congestion issues. I will wake up with congested sinuses and/or headache. Ibuprofen makes it go away. Came on two days after I stopped the Prednisone. I think the length and the lack of a taper at the end caused a sinus rebound.
But the low level fever and elevated temperature comes back every day in the morning and parts of the day then goes away sometimes during the day and at night most nights.
I did a short course of Prednisone the beginning of January and the sinus problems went away for a few days but then came back - tho not as bad as it was before.
Of course, I had no sinus issues before the Prednisone, so I have no idea if my current sinus issues are related or were caused by the Prednisone.
I know I have a deviated septum, so I’m hoping the ENT will be able to at least help with that. And then beyond that can either find something else or find nothing else so I can move on to the Infectious Disease specialist. And regardless that would be another step closer to figuring things out.
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The best of luck Sir Evan.
Strong you are!
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Met with the ENT last week. I have a CT scan of my sinuses set for next week. So, we’ll see if that uncovers anything.
My PCP agreed to a test for Lyme Disease which I took on Thursday and came back Monday as negative.
Still hitting temps in the low 100’s this week.
I’m actually somewhat bummed that the Lyme Disease test was negative. At this point I’d like at least an answer and a target to treat rather than continuing to tick off negative tests. But there’s still the ENT and CT scan. And if they don’t find anything then maybe my GI doc will want to do a colonoscopy. (what fun!) Or maybe I’ll just end up at the infectious disease doc. 
One step at time.
Rode GOAT this morning.
I’ve already manually reduced my 4DP numbers. But I’m still reducing the workout targets.
At least I did GOAT at above 75w. Will be interesting to see if by slowly adding in some intensity and volume I can also slowly bring my HR back down.
It’s been almost 5 months since I’ve done any significant volume or intensity and I am definitely out of shape. So, it will be interesting to see if my higher HR is from being out of shape or from whatever “syndrome” I’ve developed.
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Here in Sweden my lyme test came back negative too(back in the 90s when I was in my mid 30s)after many weird and wandering symptoms including a racing heart beat, crushing headache and exhaustion. I succesfully persuaded my doctor to give me the antibiotics anyway. Symptoms slowly disappered. A double dose of a cheapish antibiotic for a month. (!)
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Same here a few years back. Convinced him I’d been through a round of active virus already, and the test had caught me in a dormant phase. Got the AB and got better.
Though what are these “cheapish” medications you speak of? Asking for a country. 
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May the Sufferlandria Force be with you Sir Evan @emacdoug
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well they were comparatively cheap in the 90’s anyway
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Had my sinus CT scan last week. Was able to move up my ENT follow-up appointment to this Friday. So will see the results plus get a sinus scope (oh joy!). 
Fingers crossed. 
But in better news…
On January 27 I did Open 30 with a normalized power of 112w with an avg HR of 131bpm.
Today I did Open 30 with a normalized power of 110w and an avg HR of 109bpm.
It’s been a while since my HR was that low for 110w. Hopefully that’s a good sign at least for my fitness.
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Have you been tested for hypercalcemia?
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Haven’t been tested for hypercalcemia specifically. I just looked it up to see what it was before responding.
I also just checked my labs, and Calcium level was included in my CBC. The result was within normal range.
Good to have this kind of feedback to see what else is out there that I have no clue about. So thank you! 
Cool - some of your symptoms, particularly the elevated heart rate, reminded me of the problem I had a couple of years ago…
Hope you get a diagnosis soon… Hang in there.
Rob
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Had one of those a few years back, not as bad as you may imagine, just stings a tad when being removed so dont stress about it…
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That’s good to know! Not looking forward to it, so that’s good news.
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Had my ENT follow-up for my CT scan and sinus scope today.
While I do have a slight curvature of my septum, it’s not severe or causing any blockages. My sinuses are clear with no irritation or swelling or infection. The back of my throat was clear too.
So, that rules out sinus issues.
ENT said a referral to an infectious disease specialist was his next-step recommendation.
I have a follow-up with my GI doc the end of March. And I called my PCP with the results of my ENT and he approved my referral to an infectious disease doc. So now I wait for them to call me to set up an appt.
I haven’t measured my temp above 99.5 this week. Never went above 99.3-99.5 every day, until Thursday. Thursday I measured it at 100.2 a couple times. Today it’s been 100.3 multiple times. Was 101.0 one time, but I won’t write that down unless I get the same reading at least twice.
So, slowly ruling things out, but not finding any solutions, yet.
But on the plus side, my HR does seem to be improving for my workouts. Still trying to stick mostly around 110w with the occasional stint in Z2, and the rare short attacks around 200w, and recovery below 90w. Most workouts are only 30 minutes, but slowly hoping to push them longer to boost my endurance to handle more 60 minute rides. At the same time I’m not in a rush, so I’m taking full days off to sleep in and only workout out between 3-5 days per week instead of my previous 6 days a week every week. There’s no reason to work that hard right now. In need to just stay healthy while getting plenty of rest and recovery to promote healing.
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Best of luck to you.
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Been visiting my mom this past weekend and the beginning of this week over the 2nd anniversary of my dad’s passing. My temperature has been on the low side most days. I don’t know if that’s a good sign or if it’s just because it’s been really cold here. Tho we did a lot of walking on Monday and Tuesday and my temperature was up again to upper 99’s (99.5-99.7) yesterday evening.
I have an appointment with an infectious disease specialist next week. So hopefully that will be the key to figuring out what is actually going on and if I have some form of long Covid or something underlying that nobody has found yet.
So we will see how the next week and a half goes.
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Infectious disease specialist appointment today went about as well as could be expected.
Doctor listened intently (not all do, so it’s good to feel listened to). She feels that my low-grade fevers are not concerning based on my previous blood tests and other specialist appointments. Meaning she doesn’t think it’s anything serious. But definitely wants to find the cause if she can.
She noticed from my paperwork and previous bloodwork that I do a lot of exercising and said she could see my metabolism is high. Otherwise, she doesn’t see signs of any obvious causes for my elevated temperature. So she has me give quite a lot of blood for a lot of testing including a blood culture, thyroid test, and just about anything she could think of.
Glad they had a lab in-house so I was able to give blood for the tests then and there. I have a tele-health appt next week to review the results. I’m not expecting much. Will see what she finds out, and if she recommends I keep my GI doc follow-up for the end of the month for a possible colonoscopy or not.p
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Nothing to be afraid of as I know since three weeks when i had it, as usual at my age as a preventative examination. However the preparation for it isn‘t nice 
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Yep , had a couple and the procedure is fine TBH. They give you gas and air (Entinox) over here in the UK to relax you but it makes me feel light headed so I didnt bother and had no issues with pain/uncomfortableness at all. I even watched the procedure on the screen, interesting. BUT the prep beforehand to clear you out and the amount of gunk you have to drink which gets you rushing to the toilet to make your bowels sparkling clean is not too nice.
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