Thursday, July 21, 2005

finally, the neurologist

Today was the day I finally saw a neurologist. He did a few quick evaluations - reflexes, how sensitive is each half of my body to vibration (using a tuning fork) or being stuck with a toothpick, how well my eyes track his fingers, how good is my peripheral vision, does one eye see color more intensely than the other, un-even strength right vs left. The results, my left side is less sensitive to vibration and being stuck with a toothpick. My left eye sees color less intensely than my right eye, which is something I could have easily been born with (to go with my barely noticeable heart murmur). The loss of muscle strength seems to be generalized.

The doctor was refreshingly straightforward. "I don't know what you have. We're going to do a full MS work up, because your symptoms lean toward MS at this time." I will be getting a spinal tap in 2 weeks, and hopefully between now and then will have another MRI of my brain and cervical spine, and a series of 3 tests that measure how fast my brain reacts to a stimulus. I'll have electrodes on my head, measuring brain activity. I will look at a screen, and the computer will record the time it takes my brain to react to the visual stimulus. Then an audio stimulus, then a tactile stimulus. The reaction times of MS patients are about 80% of what would be expected of the normal reaction times.

So, when I know something, I'll post the results.

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