Yes, I believe I mentioned it in my initial post on this thread.

When you go to this department you have to fill in a lot of paperwork so I wrote all about Dr. Theirl and when we were in Dr. Goldfarb's office, Alan went on and on about Dr. Theirl. He thinks both Dr. Theirl and Dr. Fred are as close to gods as possible. Dr. Fred because he feel she saved his life by getting him the stent, and Dr. Theirl because when Alan first went to Dr. Theirl, Alan weighted 250 or so, couldn't bend any part of his body, wore a duragesic pain patch and took vicodin.

AFTER DR. THEIRL, Alan lost weight, bench presses A LOT OF WEIGHT!!! (not sure how much exactly), can do exercises he never could have done before, and most important, was able to get off the fentanyl patch and the vicodin. That alone, believe me, is a darn miracle.

God bless Dr. Theirl, that's all I can say!!!!

She definitely believes in chiropractors. She had never heard of a chiropractic/neurologist. I explained that it is a chiropractor who takes three years of neurology.

She replied "really?, well how interesting is that. Alan's Dr. Theirl certainly helped him, now didn't he?, I have a really bad back and yesterday I went for physical therapy and this morning I had a massage, so I'm a big believe in massage and chiropractors".

Nice to hear a physician talking nice about chiropractors.

mel

May I ask what Methodist Hospital you took him to???

--Heidi

Brooklyn, NY

bye for now
melody

despite the fact that I am insanely jealous of Alan's new doctor, I'm going to go ahead and share something with you.

I think it's very interesting that Alan got relief from a chiro, and also that his PN pain seems positional--it occurs when he's in certain positions.

Not to go into a long story, but those symptoms have some similarities to mine.

In my Internet research, I came across something interesting in talking to the Thoracic Outlet Syndrome people, which is a different kind of compression neuropathy. There's a doctor in Pennsylvania who specializes in TOS, and has written about small fiber symptoms among TOS sufferers. He believes, though he can't prove, that some people get small fiber symptoms when their TOS is still mild, because the small fibers are more delicate and more easily crushed. Well, they are called small, after all. So these folks can get burning, prickling, etc., without experiencing the large-fiber symptoms like numbness or motor problems.

If that's true, then perhaps the same kind of thing can happen when nerves are compressed in other areas of the body. This would occur when the compression doesn't show up on diagnostic tests like nerve conductions or EMGs, because it's the small fibers that are involved here. And because there's no test, most docs don't know much about it.

On the other hand, if it is what's happening, it can be helped. I found a big relief from going to a physical therapist who found that the connective tissue around my vertebrae were very, very tight. She loosened up my back with something called a "wedge"--it's painless, and you can't believe it's actually doing anything until you stand up and move your neck.

That, plus myofascial trigger point massage, is what brought me around.

I later learned, by the way, that weightlifting can increase the risk of something like that happening. I still weightlift, but now I do some simple stretches that keep me out of trouble.

So that may be something for Alan to try. Ask the doc!

Hope that's helpful. Happy Thanksgiving!

and here's an update on my hubby.

We just came from his having his Arterial Duplex. Alan asked me "will they tell me right away if I'm okay" and I said 'don't worry, technicians don't tell you anything, they are not supposed to, but you know me, I'll get it out of the male nurse there". Alan laughed.

So we walk in and the technician comes over the Alan and tells him "come with me and Alan asks, "Can my wife come in". and the guy puts a face on and goes, "well there's really no room in the room for her".

I had been sitting with Frank, the male nurse who is an ex-army medic, and is pre-med so I wanted to pick his brain about some things. So I sent Alan off to get his arterial duplex.

Frank then goes to me "don't worry, I'll find out for you about the results". Then I ask Frank about the new informatio on the stent issue that was on the internet yesterday, about how 2000 out of one million people are dying each year because blood clots form around the stent area.

He told me "I haven't heard an update on that yet but I'll tell you this. Alan is way ahead of any other patients that we have with stents (AND WE HAVE A LOT OF PATIENTS WITH STENTS!!!). Alan lost his weight, he goes to the gym, he eats a 100% healthy balanced diet, he is way better off than other people with stents because he does what he is supposed to do."

So he kind of put me at ease on this stent thing. I don't want to worry about one more thing. I have enought to think about.

Then he said "there is a new stent out that has a coating (kind of like teflon), that a blood clot can't cling to". I said "oh, Alan has the cyper stent, is this the stent you mean"? And Frank goes. "you have to ask his Cardiologist about that"

I'm going to go one better and call up the people who make the cypher stent. I have the implant number so they can tell me if Alan got this particular stent.

Oh, and this is funny. Before we get there, Alan tells me "I know exactly what to look for on this arterial test. If I see wavy lines that dont' go below the line, I know I have PAD" I tell him "you don't know anything, you are not a radiologist, a technician, nor are you a doctor, wait until we get the results."

So now he is there taking the test and while he is finiishing up, Frank (the male nurse), comes out, looks at me and does a thumbs up thing.
Then Alan walks over to him and Frank says 'everything went fine, your circulation is fine". Alan says "I don't think so, I saw the screen, I have PAD, the thing didn't go beyond the bottom line". Frank said "what on earth are you talking about???"

I explained to Frank that Alan thinks he's a radiologist now because he went on the internet and he burst out laughing. I then told Alan "Believe me, the technician knows and if he saw something he would have told Frank". Frank said "she's right, we have our litle signals and the guy told Frank that Alan's test was good.

So I convinced Alan, he's okay. We'll get the official results from the radiologist whenever.

Now this is very interesting. While Alan was there for the Arterial Duplex, he was also supposed to get a blood test for Vasculitis. Dr. Fred had told him last week. "Come in Wednesday and we'll test you for vasculitis".

So we ask about that test and Frank says "well, I need more info that that. What kind of test did Dr. Fred order?" Alan and I looked at each other and said "well, a test for vasculitis, of course" and Frank said "no, it doesn't work that way, there's a lot of tests, I need to know which tests". Dr. Fred is on vacation, so we put a call in and Alan will go back on Monday for that test.

So he went off to do his Rocky thing at the gym. I am now going to start cooking.

So I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and hope your pain levels give all of you a break tomorow.

Love, Melody