Hey Tonya,

I saw the neuro today and she was great. Very thorough. She did an EMG there at the office and it sucks because it can't differentiate between my existing nerve damage from my fragmented disk and anything "new". My hand didn't show anything at all. But she did see my videos I made of the twitching and was grateful I made them.

I have a "working diagnosis" of focal dystonia. Sort of non-specific until further tests. She basically beat it down to 2 causes. Either focal epilepsy or something going on in my c-spine (the EMG showed degenerative changes). I have to have an EEG and a c-spine MRI. My neck is absolutely killing me since she stimulated it. I had a roaring migraine earlier, which has thanfully gone away now.

I was very impressed with her. She is the first doctor to address my chronically high C-reactive protein, which other doctors have always dismissed. She said she wants to do some research and see if there is a correlation between that and dystonias, and plans to ask some of the rheumatologists at the hospital what they think. She also said that because it's so high, it shows I'm already in an inflammatory state- any little injury or irritation could cause an exaggerated response in my system. I thought that was very interesting.

I will keep you posted, I'm going to try to get the MRI and EEG this week. I feel good that I'm finally on a path to a diagnosis.

Thanks!
Carly