My Journey to an MS Diagnosis Pt. II

My Credit Manager came down and asked me what happened and what did I want to do. So I told her about tripping, and asked her to call 911 so I could go to  the hospital. When the 911 hosp. van came they loaded me up and who was the EMT? One of the sales clerks from the Southcenter store who called me for credit OK's on a regular basis - LOL. What a way to put a face to a voice on the phone. He asked me what hospital I wanted to go to and I drew a blank!! I'd only lived in Seattle my whole life ... but all I could think of was Harborview - so that's what I told him.

FWIW You Grey's Anatomy fans might like to know that Seattle Grace hospital is based on Harborview, and that 60 Minutes once did a feature back in the day, that if you were going to have a heart attack, Seattle was the best place to be because of its 911 system being in place... but as is my wont, I have digressed.

During my ten days in I had many, many tests given or recommended by a team comprised of a neurologist, Dr. Longstreth, an intern (a asshole supercilious nerd, and 3-4 residents. Let's see if I can remember what they put me through back in 1981. The MRI wasn't invented yet, and wouldn't be as widely available as it is today.

• neurological exams
• lumbar puncture, otherwise known as a spinal tap
• SEP, a sensory evoked potential
•  a complete myelogram, from the bottom of my sacrum to the top of C-1 vertebrae  (at the entrance to the brain); bot without and with contrast dye. 
•  aand, just for shits and grins, one resident suggested the well  known HOT TUB TEST, even  though I had already told them that I took baths at home and found it hard to get out of the tub there

So, let's examine these individually.

1. neuro exams are pretty simple: look into the eyes with a light, see what your peripheral vision is, look into your mouth and see how well your tongue moves, examine your reflexes on both arms and legs, have I missed anything? oh yes, touch your nose then my finger, and tap your fingers to your thumb.
2. lumbar puncture: you lie on your side in a fetal position while they take this big ass needle and poke it into your spinal cord to retrieve some spinal fluid to test. Before they do this they are kind enough to rub some lidocaine gel on to numb you up. Naturally, since this is a teaching hospital, one of the residents probably got to draw the short straw. It is this fluid that will show whether or not you have the oligal clonal banding that is characteristic of MS.
3. SEP  a sensory evoked potential: for this test they had me take an ambulance ride the UW hospital where they attached electrodes to my head and to my legs and then stimulated me with I suppose it would have been some kind of shock - but it wasn't at all painful. But the whole ordeal probably took one whole day.
4. Hot tub test. They took me to the bathing room and put me in a big bathtub and filled it with not very hot water and let me sit there for awhile. When it came time to get out I couldn't move hardly at all; I certainly couldn't get out! The nurses tried to help but I was a bit of a wet noodle. (I warned them) So they drained the tub, put a gown on me, and paged the damned resident to come help. He was disgruntled at the interruption (like I cared), and with his help they got me back to bed. I pride myself for not saying "I told you so."
5. a complete myelogram: Now this one took me to the bowels of the hospital (or so it seemed). I was strapped onto this gurney type thing with a board to keep my back straight and my feet were put into these Booties to keep my legs straight. Are we comphy, yet? Then let's get to it. (also remember that fall up the curb I took a few days ago? I likely twisted my ankle a little, because about half way through this little procedure,  those booties sucked donkey balls).   The procedure meant that the radiologist sat behind a glass window, and a tech would come in and place the plates under me. then they would take their scans, from the bottom to the top. Second time through, they injected the contrast dye and repeated the process. Every so often the doc behind the window would ask how I was doing, and I would always tell him 'fine'. After about three hours of this a tech came in to change plates and she whispered to me "Seriously, how are you dealing with this? I have never done one that took this long before." I told her that I was "On a beach on Hawaii." This was my first foray into creative visualization. Then, once  the dye got up to C-1, the voice behind the mirror said "this is very important: DO NOT MOVE YOUR HEAD. AT. ALL. Got that??"  "Um, yes?"  I said. (They didn't want dye entering my skull.) So they took the final images. They came back in and removed the dye from my spinal cord and took for-fucking-ever to review what they had. Then they sent me back to my room and told me to remain flat on my back for 24 hours; it was around 4 PM; that I could raise up 15% to eat, or drink from a straw, then go back down flat.

So, the next morning, the residents come in and ask me how I feel. Fine. Any headache? No. So what does he do? He pulls me up to a sitting position! What about now? Any head rush? Headache? No, nothing. So he tells me, I guess you can sit in the chair, then.

I lay back and  thought about this for awhile, then after not getting a headache, I got up and got help to sit in the chair. Dr. L came in, asked the same questions, and didn't put me back to bed. He left the room, then came back in and asked did anyone tell you it was okay to be sitting in the chair? I said yes, the resident did.

Several minutes later one of the nurses came in and told me that Dr. L was giving the resident a dressing down in the hallway for  sitting me up.


The next day I was discharged. All of my tests came back "within normal limits," so I was diagnosed with Transverse Myelitis because all of my symptoms at the time could be the result of a lesion in my cervical spine, but probably MS.  Follow up in 90 days.

I went from home on the 18th of June with a pair of forearm crutches. Two days later I was forced to lay down and be still due to a horrible headache - it just took a few days to catch up to me. I was needing a wheelchair by the 4th of July.

A week later I received a packet in the mail  from the MS Society for the newly diagnosed. It was lovely reading indeed as it didn't seem to apply to me at all.


Good Night, TTYL, and Be Well,

 because, I'm ready for  a little something new