Well, thanks for your time. The reason I’m here comes down to the really simple fact that we all watched my dad wither away for 3 years and then die an agonizing death from lymphoma. Call me crazy, but I’m a desperately worried daughter looking for anything to grasp onto in a medical system that moves as slow as mud while people are meanwhile dying from their undiagnosed disease. It took my dad 6 months from symptom onset to diagnosis with textbook lymphoma symptoms, and by that time he had progressed to stage 4 illness. He was bounced from infectious disease, neurology, ortho, emergency, back to internal medicine, and finally after a long awaited pet scan he was sent to heme/onc for a devastating diagnosis.

What I’m ‘asking for’ is anyone’s take here on thoughts, ideas on where to proceed next, ANYTHING, as it’s more than a little unsettling to hear “well, probably cancer!” using just the info you see here. My mother is uninsured and has to proceed extremely cautiously from a financial perspective, and fully recognizes the need for expeditious diagnostics. Believe me, we ALL do. She was scheduled for an MRI brain, head and thoracic spine next Thursday and will have to pay out of pocket for it.

If there are specific lab values or any other missing context that I may be able to provide for reference, I’m certainly more than happy to do that. To respond to you about her Cr, she’s had 3 draws over the last 2 months steadily declining. She is not known to be dehydrated, ever, as she regularly drinks water and cares for herself well.