I knew the drill well. Sign in at the front desk, sit down in the lobby, get weighed, take the vitals, answer the nurse's questions, look at all the things on the wall about the liver, and wait for the Doctor to see me. Dr. Patel always enters the room with a smile. By now I know he is looking for things that only a doctor would look for. Then after a quick glance he would ask the questions. He asked me how I was feeling and I gave the standard answer just fatigued. He looked at my eyes and then asked any other problems. I told him I was having a hard time staying awake and as soon as I got home I just wanted to go to sleep. I also told him when I was driving I was drifting off. He asked how I felt about filing disability and I responded sharply, no way, I'm not ready to quit work. Then he asked in a calm manner if there was anything else going on. I said the other day when I got off work I couldn't find my car and I had walked the parking deck three times and still couldn't find it. When I did find my car I had passed it several times. Another time he asked, anything else. I told him now that he mentioned it everyone at worked seemed to be avoiding me and leaving me out of meeting that I usually attended. They seemed frustrated with me and I wasn't sure what I had done for them to feel that way. Then he asked, how many bowel movements I was having a day. I remember thinking why in the world would he asked that questions; I answered two or three a week. He pressed on my abdomen and asked if there was any pain. I responded it's really tender around my rib cage. He did the liver tap and said he was going to order a CT and prescribe Provigil to help with the fatigue. He made an appointment to see him the next week. As I left the office I suspected something was wrong.
link for Provigil
http://www.provigil.com/pat200_what_is_provigil.aspx