Quote:
Originally Posted by RedPenguins
First, Twinkle - that was funny!
Second, Quix, thanks for the post. I have seen the chart many times...and each time I see it, I am reminded that I do not fit the criteria for MS - according to McDonald.
I was diagnosed the first day I went to the neuro in January. I thought I had a pinched nerve in my face....neuro originally told me he thought that I had had a stroke (I was 31)...he sent me immediately for an MRI and MRA. He called two hours later to tell me that I had MS. No probable, no possible...it was definite.
There are times I just wonder why some people have such a hard time getting a diagnosis. Of course, I'm not a neuro. Part of me wishes my dx did not come so "easily" or quickly....but then again, I started copaxone 10 days after my dx....and stopped that and started Tysabri and have had two infusions so far. My current goal right now is to be seen at Johns Hopkins for HiCy. I have been told that I'm a solid candidate and am now waiting for my initial appointment to go meet the docs.
Anyhow, I digress... my main point, I think, was: why do all neuros view this differently? I know the dx of MS involves many factors and there is no one test to dx it definitively.... it is just so strange sometimes. I think, well what if I had one of the doctors that some of the limbo-landers had? I'd probably be w/o a dx right now... and that I would not stand for....I dunno. It's just crazy.
But then again...I have holes in my brain, so what do I know?!
~Keri 
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You hit the nail on the head Keri. As has been explained to me several times by several neuros, it's subjective! And not all patients present the same. The docs have to think outside the box...some do, some don't. Some can't for insurance reasons (think HMO!) and you have some skittish docs that are gun shy and have forgotten how to treat "the patient."
I am thankful that my neuro treats "me" and I get good quality treatment. When I failed all the conventional tx on the market, we put our heads together and came up with options that would work for me. That's how she treats all of her patients. I know this b/c I know several of them.
That's why I am in this clinical trial b/c right here and now it's the best option for me...nothing else has worked.
I may have fit the McDonald criteria in 2001, I don't know. We never pulled out the chart and checked off the boxes to see ... oh my! does she fit in this box! I have never been one to fit any "one size fits all" charts or dx or treatments. I am what a lot of my docs call the 1 percenter.
But I do know that when I applied for the clinical trial, there was a very strict protocol for admission and I had to be re-diagnosed and I fit that box very nicely.
And that was 6 years later.
Thanks for the information Quix...it's good to have it broken down for non-medical people to understand. But maybe the docs need to understand that we do know what we know too!
