"Quote:
My training is that you rule out a medical cause first for everything.

How can you rule out a disease which has not been described yet?

For instance, how could you rule out MuSK MG in 1998, when it was only discovered in 2000?"

Obviously you can't...though I've had MANY patients where I have said, "clearly this is a medical problem, even though they can't figure it out. Just because the doctors can't find the reason for it doesn't mean it isn't there."

I've had kids sent to me with unexplained rashes for "anxiety," where I have completely ruled out anxiety in a couple of visits and assured the parents it's a medical problem. I have many, many examples like that. I would never attach a diagnosis where it didn't belong just because the medical community couldn't name the disease. I think everyone knows neither medicine nor the mental health field are exact sciences.

Tracy,

it seems to me that like my neurologist you do not think that everything "unexplained" is psychological.
But, like him you don't understand that once you open that door, you can't control who will use it and how.

I think that the option of attributing physical symptoms to emotional problems should not exist. I think that even if it may be beneficial for some, the potential harm by allowing this approach far outweighs the possible benefit.

I think that people who are anxious or depressed or suffer from any sort of emotional problem know it.

In fact, I think that this tendency to confuse between emotional and physical problems in neurology (as opposed to my field) actually makes patients less ready to discuss their emotions with their physicians and receive the emotional support they require.

Praying you find the cause of your medical problems soon! Didn't know our son was actually blessed to get his diagnosis of MG almost immediately. That way medication could begin and surgery could take place. Doctors told Son he was a case straight from the textbooks. I never realized how many people had problems getting a diagnosis, nor how long it took for some to get one until I started reading about MG and checking these sites. Bless you! Hopefully you are able to find the help you need.