Father is eing referred to Mayo Clinic for undiagnosed problem

[Azwoman]

My father is 63,, overall decent health, no history of cancer, has had asthma all of his life and lung issues but for the most part, it is under control. He has been taking breathing treatments most of his life, takes Singulair, etc. Slightly overweight but nothing serious. He does have anxiety problems, as do I but hes managed to deal with it with some medication. Lately, his prostate has been severely inflamed, Urologist has upped his dosage of Flomax but he is still miserable. can't urinate sometimes. Also, he has severe dry eye and the eye doc said it was the worst he has ever seen. Eye doc put him on prednisone drops and put implants in his tear ducts,none which have really helped. Now it appears his salivary glands are drying up and he has constant back pain. Neurologist was of NO help, and he has kidney pain and his renal numbers have dropped this past week. Something is attacking his system and finally his nephrologist has referred him to the Mayo Clinic here in Scottsdale. His test for Sjodger's syndome (sorry, wrong spelling) came back neg too since one of his docs thought it could be this. He is a wreck over this and is frustrated. Lupus test also came back neg. Can anyone comment on this? Thank you.

[Azwoman]

Well in addition to the problems with his  dry eyes, now he has what is not exactly a detached retina, but its close. He managed to get into the Mayo Clinic yesterday due to a cancellation so he was extremely relieved. The Internist is doing more blood work that will be reviewed at their lab, not anyone else's. Dad's Cat scan came back with cysts on his kidneys that were not there a few months ago, so the cysts are being looked into.  Doctor said right now he does not think Dad has anything auto-immune going on, but he didnt know for sure and mentioned a couple disorders he was going to specifically look for. And the problem with his one bad eye is just something that can happen with age, doesnt have anythng to do with his current woes. DR said if retina becomes unattached, its more serious and he will need surgery but he told my dad what symptoms to look for. Also, he said the blood pressuer medicine his nephrologist prescribed causes dry mouth and the doctor doesnt like the medication so he wrote my dad something else for now. In the mean time, he got 6 vials of blood drawn this morning and he is doing a 24 hour urine analysis, with jugs and everything. So that is some good news. Dad feels a little better but also wants to know what his kidneys are doing. I will post updates.

[Azwoman]

Thanks for the response. He is really down and of course, is worried about his kidneys. He has constant pain, and theres not alot they can do. pain pills do not help and he is on a soup and jello diet right now to make his kidneys work less. He is getting more blood work done today (mainly to see if his renal nbrs are continuing to drop) and he has an appt with the Mayo Clinic in January, but they have an ER and he may go there pretty soon.

[Dr. Kokil Mathur]

Hi
Welcome to the MedHelp forum!
In all probability all the conditions your father is facing are related. In al probability he does not have the primary Sjogren’s disease. Hence other autoimmune diseases causing dryness of eyes and drying up of salivary glands should be looked into like mixed collagen vascular disorder, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, antiphospholipid syndrome, diabetes, lupus (tested), rheumatoid arthritis etc. Even though probably the eye test was negative, all these conditions should be looked into. It is difficult to comment beyond this at this stage. Take care!