Neuro visit today

However, he is torn on our path from here because he knows I want to be proactive but thinks conservative might serve me better. He approved the Provigil big time, said it's excellent (smiled that I'd done my week long check it out already! :) ) and is happy I'm trying out the diet and supps (though is cautious because everyone's different so beware). So our next step is a lumbar puncture late next week when he's on call at the hospital. He wants to see if the OBands show up. If they are positive he'll consider the med regimen... otherwise he's in favor of monitoring it on a quarterly basis and working with physical therapy, exercise, diet etc.

I'm not looking forward to the LP but I trust him alot and agreed I prefer the conservative approach at this point. He said if he was going to recommend a med, it'd be Copaxone but let's get that far first.

So there I stand. We shall see now.  

I am so glad you work so well with your neuro.  That is more than half the battle, finding a doctor you trust.  The lumbar puncture is not great fun but you will do just fine and it can tell a lot.  It is a very useful tool in ruling in and ruling out other stuff that mimics MS.  Those o-bands were there for me but they are not there for everyone.  Just remember what your doctor said, that this is a hard disease to diagnose.

love and prayers,

For sure on his advice and you know Uppity he's already told me just that, said it's really easy! Got my sis arranged to drive me to and fro... should be fine. I coagulate fine, my labs were all great for him today (my GP and him work well together).

And working with him is very unique... he's got a rep for being a little "odd"... I guess he could be compared to a "House" like character without the sarcastic caustic nature, he picks things up most other neuro's miss... like virus's in nerves causing winged scapula in my hubby last spring! He's just amazing... observes, does all his tests in such a way you cannot fake a reaction if you're a hypochondriac, and he's got a great sense of humor to keep you smiling thru alot of fear... I'll tell another story  in another post sometime.

So yeah, we work great together, I really like him. I'm horribly stubborn with his staff about being ONLY with him, no subbing me to one of his underlings... :) he's always got fellows studying under him... but when he gives a dx, he's right on target. Highly credentialed but doesn't toot his horn a bit about it, and always always learning everything he can about everything!

Hey Rhonda! Yeah, I'm liking the conservative approach myself... I was ready to argue but he really laid it out square before I could say "but..." :) He's always got the whole pic in mind. I did flunk my walk test today though, says I'd most likely have a hard time convincing a cop I'm not drunk! I laughed and said, Yep, I figure that too! :)

Hey Deb! So good to see you! Really pleased to hear your son's doing well with the neurontin! That's wonderful!  And to see him returning to himself, it's great to hear it's progressing so well.

I love my neuro's explanations. He's a firm believer in symptoms over tests really. He uses tests for guidelines... he conducts his own tests, always runs thru all the baseline stuff with me, and he'll keep tracking the MRI's etc... but he believes in symptoms. He's logged the right eyes permanent condition now (being dimmer, less responsive and receptive).  He believes me when I hand him my journal of symptoms... this visit presented 3 new ones: spasticity, "listing" while walking, and the kidney/bladder issues. He has set the dx as definitely MS. We'll do the LP and go from there to decide on meds or not.

I've also become very aggressive with a strong supplement regimen, and starting to exercise daily now.  Maybe it's more helpful than I realize. We'll see. So I'm good with where we stand. As he put it, the disease is so individualistic and wicked, it's very hard to generalize it. Every single person is different. He says mine may be what they term "benign"... annoyingly there but not progressing rapidly into debilitation. I'm really ok with that.

As you pointed out, God will get me thru it all like He gets us thru it all every day.

yeah, I had one for the bout with viral meningitis (which the neuro has now confirmed was an acute viral meningitis case) in 2002, but they moved me right away and combined with the menigitis issues... I was pretty miserable after that one. My neuro assures me he will  be very good to me and also says stay still the first hour, go home, go to bed for the next 3-4 hrs and drink lots of fluids... figure it'll be all good.

It's always better when ya trust the doc who's doing you too, though the ER doc was great, I've got far more trust and confidence in my neuro. :)