Good Morning Vietnam…. wait… That’s from a movie and doesn’t work here for a greeting. Apologies to Robin Williams (RIP) for my poor attempt at creativity! 😉 Today is April 16 and it’s a beautiful sunny day in North Carolina! I hope the weather is good where you are too!
So, my last post left off where I was able to schedule a “Last minute” appointment with my Neurologist to talk about how I was feeling. I was pretty fortunate that I had called when I did and that a time slot opened up! Otherwise it would have taken me months to get an appointment! Very sad, but it is what it is!
Anyway, my Neuro (Neurologist is a long word… so I’ll abbreviate) put me through the standard questions and physical tests. The physical tests usually involve testing reflexes, strength, balance and whether or not I can walk a straight line. I failed a few of those this time around, so my Dr agreed that I was probably in the midst of an exacerbation (Remember… fancy word to say my disease was active). To confirm he said I needed a… wait for it… an MRI! YAY! Such good times. Also, things were bad enough that he wanted me to do a round steroids to try and put a stop to the exacerbation. So, three bits of good news in a single appointment. I am, of course, being facetious.
Why do I call out that I received three bits of good news? Well, I have been living with MS for a long time and while things aren’t perfect, Ive never had an “Immediate need” for an MRI. Also, I had never been prescribed the steroids needed to knock down MS activity. Lastly, I have never had a Neuro agree with my assumption that I was having an exacerbation (Do they think Im a hypochondriac?). 🙁 It was quite a day.
So, long story short… I had the MRI and started the steroids. The prescription of steroids was so large that my pharmacist actually called me to find out if it was real. Luckily, my Dr told me that might happen, so I was prepared. If I recall properly, I had to take around 20 “Horse pills” each morning for 7 days. That was tough in itself, but not as tough as the side effects (Nauseous, Racing heart beat, Insomnia)… I thought to myself several times… “Aren’t the steroids supposed to make me feel better?”.
Anyway… my MRI came back and showed that I had a new “Lesion” on my spinal cord. I was SHOCKED that a single little lesion could make me feel as bad as I had been feeling for months, but it was true. Based on the MRI, my doctor and I (“I” here means my “Wife and I”) agreed it was time change my MS medication to something a bit stronger. Changing medications can be a pretty big deal when you have a chronic condition, but as my old med (Have I told you it was called Copaxone and was a three times a week self administered shot?) had shown it was no longer effective… we really had no choice.
So… we requested and received permission from insurance to move forward with the new prescription and schedule our appointment….
That’s where we’ll leave off for now. 🙂
I guess this pretty much brings us current through January 2020. Maybe my future posts will be a bit shorter as they’ll be more “Real time”? Who knows! I will be talking about my new medication in my next post and how things are going, so I hope you’ll tune in!
Stay healthy and happy!
