Original Post 6.21.2017
Picking up where we left off….I wen’t to Dr. Rivera’s for the last check on my tibial stress fracture. This was late May 2004. Woo Hoo ! The doc said I was free to run as much as I wanted to, as long as I did it smartly.
As I got up to leave, almost as an afterthought, I said ” Oh yeah, what does it mean when I get a shock down my back when I bend my neck? Do I have a pinched nerve?” The look on Dr. Rivera’s face was priceless, his usual smile disappeared. He was quiet for what felt like minutes…..it was probably only seconds though. He stumbled for words and finally said, “I’m sending you next door to the imaging facility to get an MRI. I’m going to call because I want it done today.
That didn’t sound promising…… 20 minutes later I was in an MRI tube.
Okay, so I went back to the Dr. the next day. Actually first I went to the imaging facility so I could pick up my Radiologists report, which I then delivered to my Dr. post haste.
YES, of course I opened the envelope and read the report. It is my brain after all, and I did pay for the procedure. The MRI was done – with and without –
contrast (dye) on my Cervical spine. The report said that there were “Areas of non-specific demyelination .” Then some time later in the report there was something about a “disease process”. LOVELY !!
So the doc reads the report. I ask what it is. With that same sad look (from the previous appt.) he said he had his “suspicions”, but that he wouldn’t tell me. He would leave that to the Neurologist, with whom he was making me an appointment.
LOVELY, AGAIN. So his office made me an appointment 6 WEEKS from that date with some local Neuro. “UHHHHH, NO. That is not going to work for me. I’m not going to go 6 weeks without knowing what is wrong with me. That was the first thing that crossed my mind. (I mean hell, that is 5 weeks, 6 days, and 23 hours more GOOGLE searching time than I could stand to put myself through). I nicely took the referral and promptly went home and pulled out the phonebook. (Yes we still had phonebooks delivered to our house WAAAAAAAY back then 🙂 ) I was going to find a Neurologist to take me NOW, I wasn’t going to be satisfied with 6, 5, 4, 3, or even 2 weeks away.
So I lucked out and found a Neurologist that was new to the area and was accepting patients. I was able to get in 2 days later. YAAAAAY !
DR. DAWLYN SEALY was, and probably still is…..the most AMAZING doctor EVER !!
I miss him, I wish he were still seeing patients here in FL. I get too upset thinking about it. I am on Neuro #2 since I had to stop seeing Dr. Sealy.
I fired the first one (after Dr. Sealy) becasuse:
#1. his front office staff could not get out of their own damn way. (yes fired, I paid them, so I consider it firing)
#2. he said to me “Oh, I’ve never had a patient on that medication before.” – obviously NOT what I needed to hear. Obviously he hadn’t had many MS patients since this medicine is one of the VERY FEW immune modulator drugs that treat it.
#3. he tried to sell me the book he wrote that taught simple communication techniques for stroke victims and the people who care for them. “HELLO, I’m here to be treated for a condition that could paralyze me BEFORE I get to the average Stroke age demographic.”
Uggh. So next post… ‘Getting slapped with the UGLY stick of My New Reality’.
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