<< Medicine is imperfect --as are the people practicing it --and
honest errors in judgement occur >>
The first emergency room I went to was a small one in a small hospital
with no neurologist. They checked my heart and it seemed ok, so they made an
appointment with a neurologist in town for later that afternoon. They failed
to confirm that this neurologist would take my insurance. He didn't. My
husband called the insurance company from the neurlogist's office, said we
had followed all their rules and we were referred here and he felt they
should extend coverage under the circumstances. They wouldn't budge. It was
late Friday afternoon, too late to get an appointment with another
neurologist, so we were sent to a different emergency room. (I was impressed
by the fact that emergency rooms were not in real life like they are on TV --
people bursting through the doors to help and all.) After answering
questions, filling out forms, waiting, waiting, we saw a neurologist who did
a CAT scan and blood work. By the time I got a room it was aound 10:00 pm.
This had started around 7:30 am. I don't think steroids were started til the
next day. It was Labor Day week-end, so there was no one available to do an
MRI til Tuesday. (I like living in a small town, except for this.) But the
numbness had seemed to stop progressing after a while, thankfully. I finally
got started seeing the neurologists and having tests run, and the steroids
helped with the pain. Thankfully, they were familiar with TM. The insurance
company fought a lot of the expenses, but finally did pay everything they
were supposed to -- at least, as far as I know.
After all of that, however. I am very pleased with the neurologist I've
had since then, especially the fact that he calls back and talks to me
directly rather than relaying messages through nurses and receptionists. I
thought at first he was a little too quick to pull out the prescription pad,
but later realized that's about all that's available to help with TM. So I'm
now reluctantly trying some medications.
Don't mean to complain -- just wanted to add my "story" to the others on
this theme. When we were referred to a neurologist at Emory University for a
second opinion some weeks later, we were asking about the possibility of
recurrrences. My husband said, "I guess if it happens again we just go to the
emergency room again." This neurologist (not the one I see regularly) said,
"No, it's not an emergency." I was surprised -- felt like an emergency to
me!!
I had thought at first that I was having a stroke, because that was the
only thing I knew of then that caused numbness like that. The drs. at both
ERs said, "I don't think you're having a stroke." Bryan -- you've mentioned
being a dr., I think -- how did they know before doing a CAT scan that it
wasn't a stroke? I'm glad it wasn't, but I've always been curious as to how
they came to that conclusion before tests. Some of the symptoms I've had
since then are also characteristic of trans-ischemic attacks, forerunners of
strokes (from what I have read.) How do I know those are from TM and not
TIAs? How would I know the difference? I know the same symptoms can be from
different causes. But I wonder when to consider that a new symptom is
neurological or when to think there might be something else going on, besides
discussing it with the dr., which I do.
Thanks,
Barbara