Appointment at s Hopkins

[Guest guest]

I went for my first (and probably last) appointment at s Hopkins

on Thurs. It was a total waste of time. I saw a Dr. Salvatori who

told me that he thought the diagnosis of secondary hyperaldosteronism

was a misunderstanding. I told him that Dr. Carey insisted that it

was secondary hyperaldosteronism. Then he told me that if they did

AVS, they would be most interested in what the right adrenal was

doing since the " nodule " was on the left adrenal and that the right

one was very hard to get to also I would have to go off of aldactone

again. He thought that he should just leave it alone since my bp was

doing good. It was 141/70 something when I was there. I told him

that it often jumps up to upper 160s but he seemed to ignore that.

He didn't even look at the MRI films that I had been dragging around

all day. I asked him about the parathyroid and he said that it was

likely that I did have a small parathyroid tumor because they were

fairly common " in women of your age " but he didn't think there was

any reason to remove it as long as it didn't affect my bone density.

I never gave him any bone density tests, can he tell my bone density

just by looking at me?? I did have a bone density scan a couple of

years ago and the results were in the " young adult " range even though

I was about 57 at the time. He ordered a couple of tests and Dr

Grim, don't ask me what because I don't remember and I am not going

to bother getting a copy of the results. He did not repeat the

calcium and PTH tests. I asked him to check my thyroid because I

need a new RX for Syntroid and figured he could check it since he was

an endo. I don't know if he will send me an RX or not. If he

doesn't, I will get one from my primary. He gave me a saliva test

kit to do for cortisol. I am to do that and mail it in then call him

10 days later for the results. He said he wants to see me in 6

months but I don't see any point in going back. It was a 200 mile

round trip and I had to go up the day before because he only sees new

patients in the AM. What a waste of time and money. My primary told

me that Hopkins isn't any good. He said that they have a good record

because they only treat the patients they know they can cure.

Fran