3 replies to this topic

[stocks]

My blood calcium levels were high for many years - a few percent above the upper limit. I also had kidney stones which
we treated by drinking lots of water (without success)
I then moved and got an new GP who measured my parathyroid hormone (pth). It was high, but the doc made no
recommendation..
Hmmmm. High calcium and high pth.

I started googling and found:

http://www.parathyroid.com

After 5 minutes of reading, I diagnosed myself with hyperparathyroidism and got a bone density. Sure enough it was low.
I had been peeing away my bones for 15 years.

In patients with hyperparathyroidism, one of the four parathyroid glands grows into a tumor and behaves inappropriately by constantly making excess parathyroid hormone regardless of the level of calcium. In other words, one of the parathyroid glands has lost its control mechanism and continues to make large amounts of parathyroid hormone without paying attention to how high the blood calcium is. Thus, even when the calcium level is high--when the parathyroids should not be making any hormone at all--one of the glands keeps making hormone. Why? Because one of the parathyroid glands developed a benign tumor and lost its inhibitions and controls.

The wesbite is maintained by expert parathyroid surgeon Dr James Nelson (more than 2000 parathyroid surgeries).
James Norman, MD, FACS, FACE, is recognized as one of world's foremost experts on parathyroid disease and one of the best and most experienced parathyroid surgeons in the world. Dr Norman treats more patients with parathyroid disease than any other doctor on the planet.

I made an appointment, paid him 10k (worth every penny)
and flew to Tampa, Fla for the 20 minute minimally invasive surgery.

One of my four parathyroid glands was removed.
High blood calcium gone.
Kidney stones gone.
No visible scar.
I'll check my bone density next year and it should be back to normal.

[maineman]

I am curious why your doctor made no referral when he found you had elevated calcium and elevated PTH? What did he tell you? To forget about it? He should be sued for malpractice. What did he tell you? mm

[stocks]

I am curious why your doctor made no referral when he found you had elevated calcium and elevated PTH? What did he tell you? To forget about it? He should be sued for malpractice. What did he tell you?

mm

mm,

He made no comment and I didn't know enough at the time to ask an intelligent question.
I do give him credit for ordering the test. That was the key piece of information for me.

My previous doctor just accepted the high yearly blood calcium tests and kidney stones.
Dr Norman says this happens often because the condition is rare.

There is a silver lining to the years of delay. The minimally invasive procedure is only
10 years old. It is a huge improvement over the previous procedure.

Edited by stocks, 13 August 2007 - 11:26 PM.

[maineman]

Well, as an Internist, this is the stuff I thrive on... the unexplained blood test, the hard to deipher symptom ("Doctor I don't feel good".... "Well, let's try to figure out what you mean by that?"...) etc. A good Internist is like a good detective and won't rest until he can put all the pieces together. It is not uncommon to see a calcium level slightly off during an annual blood screening. If it is off by a hair, it would take symptoms or related findings to induce us to order a Parathyroid hormone blood test as it is not the only thing that can distort a calcium level. But my god, if a doctor even bothers to get a PTH level and its high, then, in the absence of confounding problems like chronic kidney failure, for instance, what more do you need? At that time a referral to either an endocrine specialist or a surgeon who SPECIALZES in parathyroid surgery is ethically indicated. Glad you took care of it. I hope you went back and kindly "educated" your previous 2 doctors.... mm