my neurologist appointment
My neurologist tells me that he needs to know if I experience numbness and tingling in a limb for a day or more (I believe he means complete numbness, i.e. the limb becomes useless), and he will send me for an MRI to rule out MS, but, until then, he believes my symptoms are probably caused by stress. My reaction to this news is three-fold and conflicted:
1. Relief. His assistant stuck electrodes on my left hand, forearm, foot, and calf, and sent impulses up the nerves. I believe this was a nerve conduction velocity test and not an EMG, because I am pretty sure they use needles for an EMG, and these were definitely surface electrodes. She told me to relax, which is always fun. Please relax while I send jolts of electricity through your nerves. Anyway, at least it was a test. Also, I did ask him specifically about motor neuron disease, and he said it is definitely not that. (ETA: Babinski was negative (normal), Romberg too. He didn't explain these to me as he was doing them, but I have read enough to know.)
2. I am being dismissed as the overly anxious woman again.
3. If he is right, I need to find a better outlet for my stress, for there is much too much of it.
In other news, I think I'm in love with Mark Pellegrino. Don't you think he would make a great Wile E. Coyote if they ever made a live action Looney Tunes film? Don't you think his surname sounds like some kind of expensive Italian water? I sometimes wonder if he is getting a big head from all these grandiose roles: guardian of an island, Lucifer.. P.S. The obvious American Gods shout-out that was "Hammer of the Gods" filled me with glee. Odin ♥.
ETA: There's no actual video, just music, but you need to hear this. Shades of Paul Simon, no?
1. Relief. His assistant stuck electrodes on my left hand, forearm, foot, and calf, and sent impulses up the nerves. I believe this was a nerve conduction velocity test and not an EMG, because I am pretty sure they use needles for an EMG, and these were definitely surface electrodes. She told me to relax, which is always fun. Please relax while I send jolts of electricity through your nerves. Anyway, at least it was a test. Also, I did ask him specifically about motor neuron disease, and he said it is definitely not that. (ETA: Babinski was negative (normal), Romberg too. He didn't explain these to me as he was doing them, but I have read enough to know.)
2. I am being dismissed as the overly anxious woman again.
3. If he is right, I need to find a better outlet for my stress, for there is much too much of it.
In other news, I think I'm in love with Mark Pellegrino. Don't you think he would make a great Wile E. Coyote if they ever made a live action Looney Tunes film? Don't you think his surname sounds like some kind of expensive Italian water? I sometimes wonder if he is getting a big head from all these grandiose roles: guardian of an island, Lucifer.. P.S. The obvious American Gods shout-out that was "Hammer of the Gods" filled me with glee. Odin ♥.
ETA: There's no actual video, just music, but you need to hear this. Shades of Paul Simon, no?
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