jabbur
Master Chef
Stacy, are you still having the sharp pain? I hope things go well with your appointment Friday. I'm concerned about your kidneys and your heart. The pressure across your shoulder could be signs of heart attack. Women have more subtle symptoms and different ones from men when it comes to heart attacks. Before your appointment, sit down and write out all your symptoms, your questions, your concerns. Try to put things in chronolgical order as best you can. When you first noticed, how things changed over time etc. This will help you to give the doctor a clearer picture of what has been going on. Sometimes, docs will ask you a question and then latch onto the first thing you say as the major problem and not pay attention to whatelse you say. They may jump in with conclusions without having heard everything that is important. That is why writing things down will help. You can even hand this to the doctor to read. He'll probably be able to get a better picture that way and won't be as likely to interupt as when he's listening to you talk. I worked as an RN for 25 years half of them in doctor's offices so I know how they are with patients. Don't be afraid to stop them if you aren't finished or don't understand.
You also want to rule out panic attacks. With all the garbage you have been thru you may be developing them. I used to get terrible panic/anxiety attacks which can include tightening in the shoulders and neck trouble breathing as you are starting to hyper ventilate and many other symptoms however Edema is not one of them. Once they rule out all the other stuff then see if that might be part of the the problem.
