There is no other way to say it. After more than 24 hours in emergency, cruel nurses, “your eye will leak black gooey stuff, don’t worry about it just put on some polysporin), and the final straw; a dismissive neurologist.
After having a headache for over a month showing stroke symptoms, loosing consciousness (twice), going to emerg (twice), and losing muscle strength that has not come back even two months later, we finally get to see a neurologist. We were so happy! That went away, like, right away. It seemed like he only read the notes while we were in the office (he said we couldn’t find a number of tests but then we told him what medical network to look on and he found them, while we were in the office. He read them, asked the questions we had already answered in the notes, and then did the classic neurology tests on muscle strength, coordination, and then sat down again.
He then said he felt these were three separate, unrelated events.
- The headaches are migraines (even though we explained we really didn’t think so, but he’s the head Dr. so okay…).
- The lost of consciousness could just be a passing thing. Many patients lose consciousness and while the time it took for her to recover was a lot longer, he seemed sure it will pass. He’ll still keep an eye on that although it’s probably because of the third thing.
- Your husband has MS so you are aware of many of the neurological impacts and perhaps you’re exhibiting those symptoms. He then rattled off some long disorder and suggested that she is emulating MS symptoms because she’s aware of them.
Patients who are open to this diagnosis do much better
What.
The.
Fuck.
I don’t have ANY of the symptoms she’s demonstrating. I don’ trip over cracks in the sidewalk because i can’t lift my left leg. I don’t get nauseous or lose strength because I walk for 10 minutes. My head doesn’t have a subtle shake to it, my eyes don’t skitter when watching a finger move in front of them. In fact, none of the symptoms she’s demonstrating are even classic MS symptoms!
He did mention the bipolar disorder she suffers from…
I have maintained my faith in our medical system to not be biased when giving care. She has reminded me time and time again many doctors shy away from patients with a psych history and chalk everything up to that. I’ve maintained my faith even after seeing her be dismissed and pushed off to the side.
IIt’s dead. I can no longer stick up for a medical system that, quite literally, put her in a chair in a lobby overnight, did not bring food or water for over 12 hours, and bitched about it. I was witness to the treatment of nurses (I actually interrupted one nurse’s tirade by saying, “I understand the situation is challenging but please do whatever it is you need to do in order to provide care. And given the situation we are in, the attitude is certainly not helpful.” To her credit, she accepted what I said without comment but then purposely inflicted pain when removing the IV. There is no reason to flick a painful IV but I digress. My faith took a blow then, but the conversation with the Dr. dropped napalm on it.
May as well bring back sanitariums.