Had a so so experience in January when I went to the lovely large medical facility which is less than a 2 hour drive from my place. Had an awful experience when I went back in February for an LP (OUCH!!!!). And this time, I had a great experience with a totally different neuro.

I told him why I was there to see him and that I had thought I was going to see a "treating neurologist" when I was there in January, but that wasn't how it turned out--I was only there for a consult, even though I'd told everyone who would listen to me that I was there for a "treating neurologist." Gave him the Reader's Digest condensed version and said, "End of saga." He said, "Well, the saga is going to continue but we'll get to that later." And we went on to discuss my MRIs, CT, and test results.

He actually listens! He does. And he was great. So rather than just being told (after being dx'd in 2005 from 2 lesions on my brain etc.) that I only had transverse myelitis, he now says "possible/probable MS." The first neuro there didn't see ANY lesions on my brain MRI from 2005, but this guy did. He saw one. I'll take that. So 2 out of 3 neuros have now seen lesions. I'm going with the majority on this.

He affirmed that my presentation of the episode I had in 2003 was not a typical presentation of TM and that it was much more like MS than anything. Wants to f/u with me every 4 months and if no new lesions at the end of a year, switch me to every 6 months. He'll f/u for 5 years like that. If nothing changes, he said MS is really out of the picture, but he said that in his experience with what I've had so far and what I have that 60-75% of patients will be confirmed with MS.

Now the saga part: he got recruited by another medical facility in Texas and is going there, so he won't be my neuro at this facility. But he IS going to hook me up with someone who he thinks will be a "fit" with me (he said he wants to do that with all his patients). So I'm going to end up f/u with his partner at the facility. I'm sad cuz this guy was great as far as communicating, his sense of humor, his bedside manner, but glad that he's going to put me with someone who has the same philosophy that he does.

I'm not changing my "dx" from MS to no MS. It makes no sense. Who wants to explain that all the time to people? As far as I'm concerned, it is MS until it's not. That'll make it easier. Besides, I could be heading for a tie breaker on the MRI interpretation. OR I could be heading toward a "I see more than one lesion" as my old neuro (an MS specialist who is now at the Cleveland Clinic) said he saw.

Now all I have to do is talk to my regular doc about the 7 mm liver lesion they found on CT scan which I didn't hear squat from him about. If you think that I'm going to just let THAT one sit, nuh uh!

So I've run the gamut. Neuro who flip flopped between dx/meds, no dx/no meds, dx/no meds. Neuro (the floppy one's partner) who saw lesions and w/my thoracic spine lesion gave me dx in 2005. Neuro who didn't see any lesions (thought the two in the corpus callosum he saw on the 2008 MRI were probably artifact) and said only TM. And Neuro who saw one lesion on the 2005 MRI, no comment on the 2008 MRI, possible/probable MS, and we'll f/u and if you're comfortable w/it not give you meds.

Let's see what neuro # 5 says when I see him in a few months. LOL At this rate, I'm better off picking a dx myself and sticking with it than changing it every few months. Yikes!