Well today was most interesting. The first part of the test was the EMG and Dr. Goldfarb did both tests on Alan.

I must say, I've had emg's during which I jumped off the table and threatened to punch the nurse who gave me the test, well I threatened to punch her in the face.

And there sat my Alan, just lying there, not feeling a blessed thing. I could not believe it.

Then she did the nerve conduction test where she stuck needles deep into different parts of his body. She did the legs, the hands and then she turned him over and did up and down his spine (telling us she was not putting the needle in his spinal column but rather in certain nerves. She kept saying to him relax, relax and although Alan wasn't moving, the darn screen was making all sorts of noise and she kept saying "we need to not hear the noise".
Alan just said "but I'm not moving". She then said again. "Alan you have to try to relax". Whereupon I just quietly said "Do you want me to help him to relax?" and she said "yes please". and I simply did my thing on his bald head.
She had a bottle of Vitamin E lotion on the counter, so I just put a dollop on my hand and I massaged his head, behind his ears and the top of the back of his neck. The room went suddently quiet and the doctor said "my god, I wish I had you as my assistant. Alan was amost snoring. She kept putting the needles all the way in and he didn't feel it. He was that relaxed.

When it was all over she said "well, I'm not going to go over all the results today, there's too much information I have to go over but I will give you my quick opinion on these tests.

She believes Alan does not have demylinating neuropathy. (I hope I got this terminology right.). I'm not sure if she said "he does not have non-demylinating neuropathy). I did ask her "so his myelin sheath is okay and she said "yes, this means his myelin sheath is not affected".

Alan said "what does this mean". and she said "we'll know more when you go to Dr. Fred and take all the blood tests that I just gave Melody". (she gave me a piece of paper with all the names of the blood tests). Her handwriting is horrible but she assured me that the people will know what she wrote. She did go over them with me and the ones I can remember are as follows:

glucose tolerance test, cryo (something or other), ESR, Reachre, BR, Melanic Acid, Folate, RPR, PANCD, CANADCE, RFACRIR, Quantitative immunglobulins, IVE, SPEP, SSA, SSB, LYME, Naisglutein and something polyneuropathy.
(I have never seen such bad handwriting in my life. We were there for two hours and I didn't want her to re-write everything. She assured me that the people doing the blood test would understand what she wrote and that they could call her with any questions.

She then said "the test I just did (with the needles) told me about the electricity of the nerves. Then she went on (I cannot remember one thing she said). She also said that her mentor Norman Latov just wrote a book on neuropathy. (I'm going to look this up).

Oh, then I asked her about Srojens and Alan said "what the heck is that" and she said "I'm testing him for that, it's in one of those blood tests".

She ruled out Amyloiditis (sorry for the spelling). She said "no, he doesn't have that."

She does indeed know what she was doing. It was a very very long test and she was very thorough.

And alan got a nice head massage with vitamin E. She had to run out to get some special needles for the test and she saw me treating his psoriasis and said 'do you do housecalls?" I laughed. I told Alan, "I'll never get you on a table like this so let me work on your ears. He has psoriasis around his ears and his eyebrows. When she came back she saw his skin was nice and pink and I did put a little of her vitamin e on his face and she said "nice job".

then she she saw me massage him so he could relax during the nerve conduction test she asked us "how long are you two married". I said 26 years. She smiled.

She doesn't think Alan's neuropathy is autoimmune but she needs to review the blood tests. She believes there is something going on in his body that might be impinging something. Alan just said "I just want to know". She said "well, we are doing all we can to get to the bottom of this"

So Alan will have blood tests next tuesday and our next appointment with Dr. Goldfarb is on January 22. Maybe sooner if the blood tests come back.
So you know I'll update all of you when I know anything.
Let's keep our fingers crossed.
Alan does have something auto-immune going on in his body because his psoriasis is getting worse and it's on his eyebrows almost to his eyes but I have been putting a little vitamin e oil and the one on his eye went away a week ago. So that's good. He has it bad on his legs and arms and elbows.
he uses clobetasol but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

So we have to wait and see. But his face, eyebrows and ears are nice and pink now. And they don't burn. I use gentle stuff on him.

so I shall update.
bye for now,

Hi Melody:

I followed the directions for using the graphics, but with my e-mail and Internet program I can only get the code instead of the graphics. Am so disappointed. I have seen this code in other mailings and often wondered what it was and now I know.

Shirley H.

Shirley:

This has nothing to do with your e-mail program.
Just click on the link I'm giving you.

http://bestsmileys.com/pageindex.htm

when you click on the link, you'll find yourself at a smiley's page. click on one of the smileys and the next page will bring you codes on the left side and graphics on the right side. Even if you don't see the graphics on the right side, just select one of the codes on the left, (try this as an experiment). copy the code into your clipboard. then come back here and post a reply and hit the paste thing. You know, the copy and paste function.
You will not immediately see the graphic immediately. You will only see the code. After you hit "submit reply" and the post appears in the thread THEN YOU WILL SEE THE GRAPHIC!!

So when you have a few minutes and want to experiment, give it a whirl, okay?
mel

melody,

does alan have problems with chemicals making his psoriais worse? like soaps, cleaning products? if so you might have him ask what products his gym uses to clean equipment and if they stick to a cleaning and disenfecting schedule. especially if he uses club towels.

--some of those acronyms you posted for the tests don't look like any I've ever seen on a scrip.

But, a few of them are familiar--and she is doing at least a number of the tests to rule out some neuropathy causes.

Obviously, you know about the glucose tolerance test. The ESR is the sedimentation rate used to get a general measure of inflammation. I'm pleased she ordered cryoglobulins and quantitative immunolglobulins, and while I'm not sure from what you wrote, I think she also ordered a serum protein immunofixation electrophoresis (SPEP). These are all tests for rogue antibodies of the blood that can produce primarily sensory neuropathies.

She's got a folate test in there--didn't see a vitamin B12 test, though--and the SSA/SSB are tests for Sjogren's related antibodes. She's also got the Lyme and RPR (that's a neurosyphilis screen--doubt Alan has that). I'm wondering what test the "Naisgluten" is; I do think everyone with neuropathy should be screened for gluten sensitivity, but usually those are listed as anti-gliadin IgA and IgG and anti-transglutaminase antibody tests.

I am wondering what some of the other acronyms are, unless they are for specific combo panels done at the hospital. But it looks like Latov taught her well.

serum protein immunofixation electrophoresis (SPEP...

oh yeah, like I understand this!!!!. I must have gone over this blood test thing 20 times. Can't understand one thing. Alan took a glucose tolerance test many years ago and I test him from time to time. His sugar never goes over 85. Doesn't this mean he can't have diabetes???'

And she's testing him for Syphillis??? Really?? now that's funny. Let me explain.
When Alan first had the neuropathy, let's say 16 or so years ago, we began a journey of different kinds of doctors. neuros, rheumos, this doc and that doc. I will never forget when we were in some doc's office and the doctor looked at Alan (all serious and everything) and asked Alan "have you ever had sex with a Vietnamese woman". I thought the man had lost his mind!!!

I said "what did you just say,and Alan nearly choked". I said "you want to know if he slept with a vietnamese woman?? let me tell you, if Alan slept with a vietnamese woman, it would be the last vietnamese woman he would ever sleep with..... what the hell kind of question is that???"

the doctor, after he stopped smiling... looked at Alan and asked him if he was ever in Vietnam? Alan just stared at the doctor. Now Alan isn't too quick on the uptake sometimes and neither of us was very quick on the uptake on this vietnamese question thing. Alan said "why on earth would you want to know if I went to vietnam?

The doctor FINALLY EXPLAINED that many many solders, during the vietnam war, had relations with the local vietnamese woman who all gave these soldiers syphillis. Now years and years have passed and many of these guys were coming down with neuropathy and when they were tested it was found that these guys had syphillis. Well, I gave Alan a withering look and simply said "If, and I don't care where it happened, but IF you have ever been with anybody from that part of the country, you better spit it out now". After choking for five minutes, Alan said to the doctor (and to me). "I swear to god, I have never touched anybody from vietnam". You had to see the look on the doctor's face and when I burst out laughing. I knew he never had a vietnamese woman, I wanted to see his reaction. So the syphillis thing was ruled out.

BUT, if this new test the doctor is running determines something else, THEN ALAN WILL NOT ONLY BE EATING HIS PATATAS, HE'LL BE WEARING THEM.....and this is where he will be:

I uploaded these to photobucket and put them in this thread.
I couldn't get the whole image so it's broken down into two photos.
So if any knowledgeable people out there can make heads or tails out of what she ordered, let me know. I can understand some of them but couldn't read many others. Many one of you will have a better chance at deciphering her handwriting. here goes.

You are really special. Alan is lucky to have you as his wife...
Cathie

Aren't these the prettiest things??