Thanks again for all your advice.

What amazes me is that you all seem to be able to get access to Drs and ask for the tests, procedures and treatments you think are needed. Here in the UK you basically get caught up in the National Health Service (NHS) machine and have no say over when you get appointments to see Drs and what they will do. Even to go to a Dr privately you have to get a refferal from your general partitioner (GP), so in that sense you are reliant on your GP as to how you can access private care. At least if you go privately you can ask for various test and treatments, on NHS you are given what the particular Dr thinks and then you are just a person “in the system” the system controls who you see and what tests and treatment you get, there is very little personal choice. For example although I saw the neurologist on 5 March and he ordered Evocked Potential tests I am still waiting for the letter telling me when these will be done. I would like some of the tests which look into autoimune issues but I cannot ask that thay are done unless this is Oked by the neurologist and so far I am pretty certain that he will "call it a day" after the Evocked Potential test, but I will ask him about autoimune issues. So the only way I could take this further if the neuro does call it a day is to opt out and go privately (and for this I need GP approval!). When I was under the care of the orthopaedic consultant (if you recall I had an injured ankle and suspected tarsal tunnel), he wanted nerve conduction studies, there was a six month waiting list so in the end I did opt to go privatly (got OK from my GP) and had the tests done within a week. I felt uncomfortable about opting for private care as the more work the same Drs do for private patients the less time they have to work in the NHS and therefore the longer the wating lists for NHS treatment. I will no doubt end up seeking further investigations and treatments privately but this makes me sad as it is not right that because I can afford to “go private” and others cannot.

I will keep battling on to get what I feel I need and deserve from the system, after all I pay for it through my taxes.

Don't get me wrong, the NHS is a great thing if you have a life threatening condition or one which has a name and a defined path of diagnosis and treatment, but for something like PN, and no doubt this applies to other hard to diagnose chronic conditions, I am fast discovering that there is an unwillingness to really offer a full range of tests and treatments. The NHS is underfunded and it is all a bit of a postcode lottery, that is if you happen to live in an area where there are Drs with particular specialisms you are lucky and if you don't then .......I could break into a rant about the politics and our government's ineptitude in running the NHS but as most of you hail from the US it probablely wouldn't mean much to ya all.

It is just interesting to me that heath care in UK is hailed as the greatest and that we should be grateful we have it and that is much better that the system in the US, but from what I read here you all seem to get the better deal!

Anyway, I cannot tell you how glad I am to have found you all, I still feel a bit like an interuder into your “PN community” but I intend to “stick around”.