Thank you, Colleen. I’m glad you found something about my comments worthwhile and hope they can be helpful to others. My rheumatologist diagnosed my IgM was elevated. That meant I had MGUS. He sent my test results to my PCP who should have sent me to a hematologist but she didn’t. So I chose one at random and he said goodbye before saying hello. He did very few blood tests. Didn’t like him. That’s why I went to Mayo Clinic, though it turned out to be more helpful with other health concerns. Dr. Lusk knew less about some things than I did and he was not helpful with hematology. Next I went to City of Hope. Dr. Rosenzweig said I had leukemia. Why do you say that? Because I don’t have MGUS in my computer pull down list. He really said that. Obviously I was in the wrong place! Then I went to hematologist James Berenson. He knew how to game the system to get $300,000 annual income from drug companies for testing their new products on patients. (Check docs in ProPublica Dollars for Docs.) He wanted to make me into one of his test subjects. On my first and only visit he asked me to sign a 14 page agreement giving him permission to test things on me. No thank you! Of course he was eager to do a bone marrow biopsy! Time to leave. He had already revealed his true color. 

After this round about journey, eventually I got a referral to a hematologist I like. It's been a couple of years with him so far. He's ordered a variety of blood tests and genetic studies. (All genetic were negative, which is good. At least he looked.) More specific diagnosis is that I have IgM kappa MGUS. A painful bone marrow biopsy has not been otherwise been recommended since diagnosis seven years ago. A CT scan was done. See Robert A Kyle's writing on Bone Marrow Biopsies, 1987. He put the US in MGUS and is a great gift to our field of need He did not recommend BMB for IgM MGUS. Some patients may need this test, which will be worthwhile to undergo when they do. A friend who had it said he wished he had been under anesthesia for the procedure. 

And now for something completely different: I'm in a quandary about a question to my hematologist which he did not answer. I had asked why my ferritin is low and his conversation went to all sorts of things. I found myself subsequently sending him contacts which could be helpful to his Prius or his broken refrigerator. Poor guy. A storm of things went wrong in their house, and he loves playing ice hockey(!) Don't you love non-sequiturs? 

However I still do not know why my ferritin is low. What do you suggest? Just write him a direct question repeating this concern? Sometimes one does not know how to gently be repetitive without fearing coming across as assertive. Sorry for this long journey-in-healing diatribe, dear Colleen. Cheers! Happy healthy new year! 

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