Not such a good day for the Dooligans

This morning I finally went to the doctor for all of my wierd complaints. Over the past year or so, off and on, and in varying degrees, and not often all at the same time, I have had lots of visual disturbances, right-sided headaches with facial numbness, strange pain (like my skin will hurt really bad on my leg), lots of achiness and fatigue, dizziness, numbness in my feet and hands, and a feeling of not being able to use my hands as well as I used to. Folding a load of laundry makes me completely exerted, not like out of breath, but just like I have lifted weights. I can't sleep at night sometimes because I have really strange sensations in my legs. Having Anna sit on my lap causes me actual pain.
Who knows what you are thinking as you read this? Like either I am a complete hypochondriac, or maybe you are wondering why it took me an entire year to go to the doctor? I guess I kept chalking it up to being so sleep deprived, from nursing and being pregnant for sooooo long now. (the doctor basically told me to wean her today, which will be a whole nother blog! )
Everytime something would alarm me, it would go away before I was alarmed enough to actually call the doctor. Also, some of my symptoms have been really hard for me to articulate.
After making the appointment, I was half afraid that she would look at me like I was crazy, and completely brush me off. But then I was also afraid that she would take me seriously, which would make me feel like something is really wrong with me.
The appointment went well, my doctor was very kind and thorough. I left feeling validated but even more concerned than I was before my appointment. She spent an entire hour with me, which we all know is kind of odd for a doctor. She had a bunch of blood drawn, and said she was ordering several labs to rule out some stuff. Then she ordered an MRI of my brain with and without contrast, whatever that means. I think from everything she said, my best case scenario is fibromyalgia, which really wouldn't be that bad.
My worst case scenario is...??? I basically tested positive for the fibromyalgia from my physical exam, but in order to diagnose me she has to eliminate everything else first. Through the blood tests, she can rule our lots of things, like thyroid or a RA-like autoimmune disorder. As for the MRI, she just did not say. I think she was being intentionally vague to keep me from worrying, which I guess is smart. But now I have to wait a whole week for the MRI which, by the way, is making me claustrophobic just thinking about it. I checked that I was not claustrophobic on the form, but come on, who would not feel a little claustrophobic being in an MRI for 45 minutes?
The best part of the appointment was that I no longer feel like I am just really lazy, or like I am just really crazy. My doctor said something to me that made me feel better: You're not imagining this. It's not in your head.
I guess in retrospect that should make me feel worse, like if I were just a little nuts, I could just opt for sanity (through some good SSRIs) and stop feeling sick!
The rest of the Dooligans had bad days because:
1.) Dave is sick with a cold and worried about me.
2.) Anna has turned into a big bully and is constantly hitting and teasing her big brother.
3.) Jonathan has to deal with the rest of us.
4.) There was a whole bunch of other stuff, like my nephew puking everywhere, and my stepfather is not doing great right at the moment, and my Mom's shi tzu dragged 2 empty ground beef packages out of the trash and dragged them around the living room and I almost freaked out! because I am very concerned about germs at all times. If it had been chicken, I would have probably just had to pack up and leave!

Oh, and my fav. candidate (and the one Dave would have voted for if he weren't STILL a Republican) resigned today.