My brother Bryan

Karen_Perea · **Posted:** 02 Jan 2009 13:11

Please pray that my brother will be OK! He is almost 36. I cannot go see him since he is in PA and I am in OK. My mom just sent me an e-mail telling me:

Just want to let you know about Bryan. He's been having pain for weeks and the doctor gives him meds that help for a few days and then he's in a lot of pain again. Today he went back to the doctor and in addition to the pain he was having he was getting chest pains. So they sent him to the ER at the hospital. I just talked to Erika (my sister-in-law) and they are running tests but so far everything looks good. They did an EKG and no heart problems - so may just be muscle aches. So they are running all these blood tests to try to pin point the reason for his pain. I will keep you up to date as I hear new updates. I was going to the hospital but Erika said not to - that Bryan was sitting up watching TV and joking around and it's just a wait and see what the tests come back with.

Sorry for the news - but wanted you to know what's happening. I'm feeling better after talking to Erika because she didn't sound upset.

bidzaway · **Posted:** 07 Jan 2009 21:31

Know it's a little late - but just wanted to let you know I'm keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.

Karen_Perea · **Posted:** 10 Jan 2009 00:10

Thanks....so far he is OK! He was suppposed to go to the cardiologist this week. They were worried about it being an inflamation of the lining of his heart. I guess since he has not told my mom maybe I need to call and see if he is keeping the truth from her!

bidzaway · **Posted:** 10 Jan 2009 10:00

So glad to know he is doing ok - just keep remembering there's someone up there.

Karen_Perea · **Posted:** 10 Jan 2009 17:24

Here is an e-mail my brother sent me to keep me updated. I thought I would share it here too so ya'll knew what was going on too:

I am still feeling okay. Pretty much nothing has changed since last Friday. I am still on the anti inflammatory meds which is keeping joint pain and chest pain under control. We got the blood culture results back, which try to find bacteria in your blood, and all that came up clean. I met with a rhuematory specialist this week, she didn't have any labs from the other doctors when I visited her, but later in the week she got them and she decided to order more blood tests. So I will do that this week. So far the underlying cause of this pain has not been found. I'm not sure if I go off the meds if they will come back or not. I have a feeling it will, because I can still feel a little something in my chest when I'm breathing, just not the stabbing pain I felt before. Hopefully we know in the next week or two. I'll keep you posted. Love Bryan

Consumer_Queen · **Posted:** 11 Jan 2009 23:37

Oh goodness I hope everything works out! keep us updated!

Karen_Perea · **Posted:** 22 Jan 2009 15:03

Just got this e-mail from him:

Just wanted to give everyone an update on what's happening. Unfortunately, I don't have any new info. What we do know is my problem isn't Lupus, a few of the tests that the rhuem doc ordered came back clean, we are still waiting on other results. I visited with the cardio doc today, just a routine follow-up visit. He didn't shed any light on my problem, which I knew he wouldn't. He just did another EKG and told us the heart is fine, the pain is just a symptom of this inflamation that we are trying to track down. Instead of waiting for the rheum doc to come up with results, I went ahead and got an appt for an infectous disease specialist. So that appt is Feb 11, which is 2 days after my follow up visit with the rheum doc. So we are again in a holding pattern. At least I'm able to work, the meds have any pain under control, I'm just anxious to get off any pain meds, as they are just covering up symptoms and not treating the real problem. So I will keep everyone informed as we get more info. Love to all, Bryan

Karen_Perea · **Posted:** 19 Feb 2009 17:55

My brother sent me this last night so I decided to post it here in case anyone was interested:

Hello,
How are things going? Pretty good here. I met with the Rhuematory doc last week and she said I have Unspecified Connective Tissue Disease. It's pretty much an autoimmune disease, my immune system for some reason attacks good connective tissue instead of just viruses and bacteria. So that causes the inflammation in my joints. The treatment only consists of taking medication, probably forever. The only risk factor with the medication is possible build-up behind the eye. So before starting the meds I had to go to the eye doc and prob have to go get rechecked every year. I didn't start the meds yet. We decided to keep the infectious disease specialist appt for either a second opinion or choose another diagnosis path. I have that appt on the 24th, not yesterday like Mom told you. So we'll see what happens. I'll let you know after the appt next Tues what's happening. Love, Bryan

Karen_Perea · **Posted:** 05 Mar 2009 10:06

Hello all,
My primary doctor got the report from the infectous disease doctor. He does feel my issue was related to a virus that has since past. He ordered more blood tests just to be sure and I'm sure we will have a few more of those before this is all over. I had the blood tests done today so any abnormal results should be reported to us next week. I have been off all medication for a week now with none of the symptoms returning.. I'm still on the eye drops for red eyes, but I had my followup today with the ophthalmologist and he told me to start weening off of the drops to see if the eye redness returns. I called the infectous disease doctor to see if he had spoken to the rheumy doc, the one who diagnosed me with the joint disease and he had not gotten hold of her yet. He called me back within 10 minutes, he had talked to her and they both ended up agreeing on the virus diagnosis. So hopefully this is all over. I will keep you informed if anything else changes.
Love, Bryan

bkokc00 · **Posted:** 05 Mar 2009 10:33

Great news! happy things are looking up.

My brother Bryan

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