Friday, October 24, 2008

Let battle commence

Today was neuro day at Outpatients and after a long session with his registrar, I got 15 minutes with The Man to discuss my MonSters active status, overdue MRI films, new symptoms, steroids, DHBs who shit in their own nest and deny their patients treatment options, how to attempt to get around said DHBs and their tanties and why not falling down the stairs is a really good thing. The registrar admired the big bruise on my left knee and ran through a whole bunch of tests. The nurse did the whole blood pressure/weigh in stuff and we discussed natural pest control in the garden and why don't men have handbags cos God knows some of them need 'em.

Outcome? Possible referral to a new neurology locum coming to a hospital near me, long term ideas on how to maintain current medical personnel status quo and a long weekend taking Losec to prepare my tummy for the onslaught of my first 5-day course of high dose oral steroids on Tuesday (as opposed to IV ones which would be a pain in the bum, or hand, or something and turn the whole house upside down while I was hooked up as an in-patient).

The Man ran through a few of the expected physical fallout issues the steroids commonly present at this dosage like upset tummy, "wired" 24/7 and can't sleep (the opposite of the return to MS utter fatigue that I've had again for a few weeks now), fluid retention and weight gain, blurry vision and the high odds that I could turn into the bitch from Hell for a week or two, the latter of which Ads says might be hard to tell the difference anyway. With selling points like that, how could I possibly turn them down? Especially when he said he hoped I'd gain at least 3 and maybe 6 months of settled symptoms and a lessening or disappearance of the latest round of new symptoms that currently have me so worried.

And very worried I've been.

All this and he's a total sweetie too - what more could a girl ask for from her neurologist?

PS The registrar was a she, not a he and very nice she was, too.

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