Karen is Karen Casey (mushroo), who had a relapse or second occurence a few
motnhs ago.
What my neurologist told me, when I talked with him about doing another MRI
several months after the original TM onset because I was having numbness in
new areas and was concerned about MS, was this: he knew that I did not like
taking medications, and he said unless I was willing to change what we were
doing for treatment, he would not advise checking things for an MS diagnosis,
because, he said, it can cause insurance rates to go up and can cause
problems if you have to change insurance companies. He told me of one patient
he had who kept pushing for retesting just because she wanted to know if MS
is what she had (don't know if she had TM previously or what), and he did
retest, and did come up with an MS diagnosis. She called him again a few
months later asking him if he could change the diagnosis back, because her
insurance rates had gone up several hundred dollars because of the MS
diagnosis. Of course, he couldn't "change it back." He told me he would
retest if I wanted to though. All things considered, I decided not to.
HOWEVER -- that doesn't mean every insurance company would do that. Maybe
Sharon M. or one of the other TMers who have gone on to develop MS can
comment on what happened with their insurance with the new diagnosis. I did
wonder, later, if my neuro was trying to tell me in a subtle way that that
was what the insurance I had at the time might do.
As to your second question -- I have wondered about that also. It seems if
you have had more exacerbations, you should be able to get on one of the MS
drugs to help prevent further episodes whether the official label is MS or
not. Have you asked your dr. about that?
Take care~
Barbara
In a message dated 5/26/99 9:40:25 PM EST, MMaricic writes:
> Barbara,
> Karen who, and what havoc does the change in diagnosis reak?
> I am the one that started the questions here because I have had three
> exaserbations with the diagnosis of TM or ADEM ( Acute disseminating
> Encephelomyelitis) one had brought some worsening/ new symptoms and NOW the
> Drs are saying 52% chance it will turn into MS. I have a lesion on the
> cervical spine and three in the brain but every test has proven negative
for
> MS.
> 1.My concerns are Insurance and how the chance in Dx will affect that both
> for Medical coverage and Disability.
> 2.The other concern is IF this is MS I should have the drugs (i.e. Avonex,
B,
> C) to prevent this from progressing.
>
> What have you all seen to be the case??
>
> Signed Scared
> Michelle
>