My journey to an MS diagnosis Pt. I

At the time, I worked for a Klopfensteins in downtown Seattle starting in 1979. I was a bill collector. I wore button down oxford cloth shirts with wool plaid skirts and often was unseemly well dressed. In March of that year I and a sales clerk decided to take a long weekend trip to San Francisco. I don't remember much about that trip except that we stayed at the Drake hotel and we saw Tina Turner at the Fairmont hotel;  this was at the start of her becoming a good solo artist. No Ike in sight. I do remember she sang Proud Mary, but I'm pretty sure it was before her Private Dancer come back tour.

While back at work I started to notice my leg jumping up and down (which I would later learn was called clonus), but I could stop it by pressing down on my knee. Then the day came when I   couldn't stop it by doing that, and this was a distressing turn of events, so I went to my credit manager to see if we had any doctors who practised in the Medical-Dental Building behind Frederick and Nelson department store across the street.

So I called a Dr. Cohen who could fit me in. He was an old fart who gave me a cursory examination then prescribed me 2 mg. of valium. I saw him the following week and he upped it to 5 mg., then when that wasn't working, he upped it to 10 mg.  I saw him three times in two weeks. At our last appointment I asked him if I needed to be referred to a specialist, a neurologist perhaps? His response was to draw me a picture of a tree with its roots underground showing. And I kid you not, with his pencil he pointed to the branches and said "I can treat the symptoms, but IMO you need to get to the (and he tapped on them)  root of the problem. I think you need to see a psychologist.  WTF??

After that, I was starting to go on even walks around the boulevard, after which I could barely climb my front stairs. Actually, come to think of it, when I walked the block home from the bus stop after work, I also had problems with the stairs. I would go up to my bedroom to change and fall promptly to sleep.

Then, I decided to see a chiropractor. I saw one whose office was three blocks from my home. After three visits all he saw was that one hip was slightly higher that the other (still  is). He made a few adjustments, and then it was on June 8, 1981, the day that I missed my bus and Dad had to drive me to work. He dropped me off and pulled back into traffic as I walked to the curb,  stepped up and fell down. It was just starting to rain. People were walking past on the sidewalk and I asked two men if they would half carry, half drag me to under the awning, then alert the doorman to the store that I was there.

to  be continued...


Good Night, TTYL, and Be well,