What did that EMG show? What did that little needle tell the machine?
My muscle wasn’t working. One muscle on one leg. That was it, that was all.
It wasn’t anything I didn’t already know. But I’ll never understand why it didn’t show more loss of muscle than that, because really, more than one wasn’t working.
I’m just glad it showed something.
However, it proved something that I already knew. For some reason the muscles in my legs were quickly shutting down. What had started with the ankle muscles on my right leg had turned into almost complete loss of sensation on the outside (skin) of my left leg and almost no feeling in my left foot. Then there were the stabbing and tingling sensations in both legs and the use of a cane. But even that cane was starting not to hold me up...my legs were quickly getting worse.
My general practitioner (Dr Johnson) sent me on to a Neurologist for further testing…still thinking I had MS.
In the car on the way to see the neurologist I was actually thinking it was time to buy a walker.
A walker at age 30! That is how bad it was.
My neurologist. A man by the name of Dr Sidiq met with me and my mom in August 2004. He had me perform some of the same walking and muscle tests my regular doctor had done, he looked at the results of the EMG test and then he too told me that I more than likely had MS.
That diagnosis scared me, because there really isn’t a cure and lets be honest here…I was 30 and didn’t like the prospect of continuing on the downward spiral until I was unable to walk and worse. I had many more years to live and really didn’t want to spend them being dependent upon my mom, who has Lupus and my daughter. I’m an independent sort…almost too independent.
He said to confirm his suspicions he was scheduling me for an MRI of my brain. But that he also wanted a full body MRI, not just the brain. I’m not sure of his reasons, I’m not even sure he HAD a reason, but It was that decision and that decision alone that I will be forever grateful for. Without that decision my spiral would have quickly continued downward towards being paralyzed and even death.
On Friday August 13th 2004 I found myself lying in a large metal tube with a horrible helmet thing holding my head still for over 2 hours while they performed four MRI’s. MRI’s of the Brain, C-spine, T-spine and L-spine.
I remember leaving the hospital exhausted, nauseated and tired. I called my sister, or was it my mom, to complain about how awful having an MRI of your whole body was and that I would never EVER do that again (little did I know, oh how little I knew that day).
I went to work after that test and then continued on with my day trying my hardest to forget the awful morning and being stuck inside a tube that is really way too small of a place to spend more than 5 minutes, let alone 2 hours in.
That night I left work, picked up my daughter, stopped someplace and then headed home. The answering machine light was blinking and the screen showed 3 messages, all three were from the neurologist. The third message said basically. It is urgent that you call me ASAP. I am leaving work, call my home at ###-####.
My heart started beating way too fast. They had found something- that was all I could think. They had found something and it was bad.
Really bad!
I called him back right away and tried my best to prepare myself for the news.
He answered the phone and proceeded to tell me that the radiologist had called him during the MRI because there was something serious on the scan. He and another doctor at the hospital had looked over the MRI pictures and that he had a diagnosis for me.
And it wasn’t’ MS.
Part 4 coming soon.
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